September 21 to 25 is National Falls Prevention Awareness Week, an observance the National Council on Aging times to the start of fall each year. Most of the messaging around it focuses on grab bars, better lighting, and clearing clutter off the floor. All of that matters. But in our Bellmore office, the fall risk we catch most often is sitting in plain sight in the closet: the shoes and slippers people are actually wearing around the house.
Falls are the leading cause of injury among older adults, and roughly one in four adults over 65 experiences a fall each year. Footwear is one of the few pieces of that risk a person can fix in an afternoon, without a contractor or a renovation. It just tends to get overlooked, because nobody thinks of a slipper as medical equipment.
Why footwear matters more than people expect
A shoe does three jobs that directly affect fall risk: it grips the floor, it holds the foot in place, and it gives the ankle a stable base to push off from. When any one of those breaks down, so does balance, especially on stairs, on a wet bathroom floor, or getting up quickly at night.
The shoes that cause the most trouble are rarely the ones worn outdoors. It’s the pair worn constantly around the house: an old slipper with a smooth sole, a backless mule that slides half off with every step, or just walking around in socks on hardwood or tile. A surprising share of the falls patients tell us about happened at home, on a floor they’d walked ten thousand times, and indoor footwear is almost never on anyone’s radar.
A footwear checklist worth five minutes this week
Falls Prevention Awareness Week is a good, concrete reason to pull every pair of house shoes and slippers out and actually look at them. Here’s what to check for:
- A closed back or a secure strap. Backless slippers and mules are convenient to slide on, but the heel has nothing holding it in place, which is exactly what lets a foot slip out mid-step.
- A sole with real texture. Run a hand across the bottom. If it feels smooth or polished from wear, it has lost most of its grip on tile, hardwood, and linoleum.
- A snug, not loose, fit. Shoes that have stretched out or slippers a half size too big let the foot shift inside with every step, which is its own kind of instability.
- A low, wide, stable heel. Anything narrow, high, or wedge-shaped shrinks the base of support. This applies to slippers too, not just dress shoes.
- Something with a sole, even indoors. Socks alone and bare feet both give up the grip a shoe or slipper provides, especially on stairs.
Signs a pair of shoes has aged out
Shoes wear out gradually, which makes it easy to keep wearing a pair long after it has stopped doing its job. A few signs it’s time to replace them: the tread on the outsole is visibly smoothed down in the spots that hit the ground first, the shoe leans or twists slightly when set on a flat surface, laces or straps no longer pull the foot snug against the sole, or the inside lining has compressed and no longer holds the heel in place. None of these are dramatic on their own, but together they add up to a shoe that offers less grip and less warning when a foot catches an edge or a rug. If you want a closer look at what worn footwear is telling you, the wear patterns on the sole are usually the clearest signal.
Two other small changes that pair well with better shoes
Footwear does the most work, but it works alongside the floor it lands on. A rubber-backed bath mat instead of a smooth one, and a night light along the path from the bedroom to the bathroom, both cover the two moments when a good shoe usually isn’t even on your feet: right after a shower and in the middle of the night. Neither takes more than a few dollars and a few minutes.
A note for anyone managing diabetes or reduced sensation
Footwear and fall risk overlap in another way that’s easy to miss. Reduced feeling in the feet, whether from diabetes, neuropathy, or a past injury, means a person may not notice a shoe that has stopped fitting well, a sole that has gone slick, or a small stone caught in a slipper. If you or a family member has any numbness in the feet, that’s an added reason to have footwear checked by a professional rather than by feel alone, because feel is the one signal that can’t be trusted here.
When unsteadiness points to something more than the shoe
Sometimes a better pair of shoes solves the problem. Sometimes it doesn’t, and the shoe was only part of the story. If someone has noticed more frequent stumbling, a change in how they walk, numbness or tingling in the feet, or pain that changes how weight lands while walking, that’s worth a proper evaluation rather than another new pair of slippers. Foot structure itself can affect balance, which is part of what an exam is looking for.
At Cherrywood Foot Care, our podiatrists evaluate gait and foot structure as part of a standard visit, and we fit custom orthotics for patients whose balance issues trace back to arch collapse, nerve changes, or old injuries that changed how they walk. A gait and footwear check takes about as long as a routine visit, and it can catch a fall risk long before it results in a fall, a fracture, or a hospital stay.
A simple place to start
You don’t need to replace every pair of shoes in the house this week. Start with whatever gets worn the most, usually the slippers by the bed and whatever sits by the back door. If those two pairs pass the checklist above, that alone meaningfully lowers the everyday risk. If they don’t, this is as good a week as any to swap them out, while the topic is getting national attention anyway.
It’s also worth doing this check on behalf of a parent or older relative, not just for yourself. Most people are far more willing to point out someone else’s worn-out slippers than their own, and a five-minute conversation this week is a low-key way to bring it up without it turning into a bigger discussion about aging or independence.
Schedule a balance and footwear evaluation
Cherrywood Foot Care has served families in Bellmore, North Bellmore, Merrick, Wantagh, and East Meadow for years, with on-site gait evaluation, custom orthotics. To schedule a balance and footwear evaluation, book an appointment online or call (516) 826-9000. We are located at 2791 Jerusalem Avenue, Bellmore, NY 11710.
This article is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for an in-person evaluation. Individual results vary. If you or a loved one has fallen or has ongoing balance concerns, please schedule an appointment.
