PITTSBURGH - Every year, more than 1 million adults over age 65 fall down, causing serious injury and even death. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh want to change that.

With a $7.5 million, five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, researchers are establishing a center to study mobility and balance disorders in adults. The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center will be the ninth such center set up in the name of the late U.S. senator from Florida who was an advocate for the elderly.

The Pittsburgh center will study the benefits of balance exercises, how the elderly react to moving environments and how best to measure physical activity, among other things. The center hopes to become a nationwide resource for the elderly.

Dr. Stephanie A. Studenski, professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's geriatric medicine division, said the center is unique because it will bring together specialists from a variety of fields.

"Lots of older people have more than one problem at a time," Studenski said. "You can't just look at the problem from one perspective."

The research team includes more than 50 specialists from the university's schools of medicine, public health, nursing, health and rehabilitation sciences, and engineering. Dr. Neil Resnick, professor of medicine and chief of geriatric medicine at Pittsburgh's medical school, said it's the first time all these disciplines have been brought together to address balance disorders.

More than one-third of adults 65 and older fall each year, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.