No abstract

Background: little is known about the prevalence rates and correlates of fear of falling and avoidance of activity due to fear of falling in the general population of community-living older people. Objective: to assess prevalence rates and study correlates of fear of falling and avoidance of activity due to fear of falling in this population. Study design and setting: cross-sectional study in 4,031 community-living people aged ≥70 years. Results: fear of falling was reported by 54.3% and associated avoidance of activity by 37.9% of our population. Variables independently associated with fear of falling were: higher age (≥80 years: odds ratio (OR) = 1.79; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.49-2.16), female gender (OR = 3.23; 95% CI = 2.76-3.79), poor perceived general health (OR = 6.93; 95% CI = 4.70-10.21) and multiple falls (OR = 5.72; 95% CI = 4.40-7.43). Higher age (≥80 years: OR = 1.92; 95% CI = 1.59-2.32), poor perceived general health (OR = 11.91; 95% CI = 8.38-16.95) and multiple falls (OR = 4.64; 95% CI = 3.73-5.76) were also independently associated with avoidance of activity. Conclusions: fear of falling and avoidance of activities due to fear of falling, were highly prevalent in our sample of community-living older people. Particularly, poor perceived general health showed a strong, independent association with both, fear of falling, and related avoidance of activity. Findings of our study may help health care professionals to identify people eligible for interventions aimed at reducing fear of falling and activity restriction.

In the population-based study reported here, the effect of depression on the onset of physical disability during a 6-year period among persons initially free of disability was examined. The exclusion of persons with baseline disability rules out confounding by initial physical function and consequently gives us a clearer picture of the causal role that depression may play in the development ofdisability. We explore the impact of several potential confounding variables (sociodemographic characteristics, baseline chronic conditions) and explanatory variables (health behaviors, social context, newly occurring conditions during follow-up) in the association between depression and future disability.

Even after adjustment for sociodemographics, health status, and health behaviors, minor depression in older men and major depression in both older men and women increase the risk of dying.