Pets keep older adults moving, connected, and measurably sharper, and the research backs it. They also send about 86,600 people a year to the emergency room after a fall. Here is how to keep the companion and remove the hazard.

More than one in four adults over 65 falls each year, but falls are not an inevitable part of aging. A practical, evidence-based guide to what actually raises the risk, the twenty-minute walk-through that finds most hazards in a home, and the one kind of exercise research shows really does prevent falls.