Falls and associated factors among elderly persons residing in the community

Abstract

Objective: to identify the prevalence of falls among elderly persons and analyze fall-related factors. Method: a cross-sectional, population-based study conducted by household survey of 400 elderly subjects (aged 60 years or older) living in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil was carried out. The occurrence of falls in the last 12 months, sociodemographic factors, health profile and geriatric syndromes were observed. The crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) were obtained using Poisson regression. A three-model hierarchical approach was applied in the multivariate analysis. In all the multivariate models, gender and age were defined as confounding variables. Variables which reached a level of p<0.05 in the first model were retained in the subsequent models. For all models the significance threshold was set at 0.05 and the variables which remained associated with the occurrence of falls in the 3rd model were retained in the final analysis. Result: the prevalence of falls was 35.3% (CI 95% = 30.7;40.0). Among the elderly persons who reported falls, 44% reported that they had fallen more than once. The majority of falls occurred at home (69.2%) and in the morning (46.7%). Age a reported difficulty walking remained significantly associated with the outcome after adjustments (3rd model). Conclusion: falls are frequent and are associated with increasing age and difficulty walking. The recognition of these factors is important for strategies to reduce falls and the promotion of a healthy aging by means of preventive and rehabilitation actions that target more vulnerable groups.

The Association of Falls with Instability: An Analysis of Perceptions and Expectations toward the Use of Fall Detection Devices Among Older Adults in Malaysia

“…The risk of falling is increasing with age as the findings found that increasing age was statistically significant, where the age group of 70 years and above were more likely to fall, mainly three or more times in the past 6 months. The findings are similar to those found in studies analyzed that advanced age is associated with a higher percentage of falls ( 8 , 36 , 45 , 48 – 50 ). In contrast, Rizawati and Mas Ayu ( 44 ) found that fall occurrence was the highest in the younger group of 60 to 70 years, which accounted for 59.6% of total falls compared to age more than 70 years old (32.7%) during the past 12 months.…”

“…The prevalence of falls in the last 6 months prior to the survey was 28.9% ( n = 336), consistent with a study done in institutional settings in Kuala Lumpur, with 30% ( n = 50) prevalence ( 43 ) and 27.3% ( n = 516) with history of falls in Melaka ( 44 ). In another study conducted in Brazil, with 400 participants aged 60 years or older, the prevalence of falls was 35.3% ( 45 ). The result was higher compared to other several studies reporting the prevalence of falls in the preceding 12 months; 4.07% ( n = 811) by a study among community-dwelling in Perak ( 46 ), 14.1% ( n = 3,969) from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2018 ( 3 ), and 17.6% ( n = 1,372) among community-dwelling older adults aged 40 and above in Germany ( 47 ).…”

Disability on performing daily living activities in the elderly and history of falls: an analysis of the National Health Survey, 2013

“…Due to its consequences, including seek for high complexity health services, falls are considered an important public health problem. Among the associated factors, we highlight hospitalizations, institutionalization, fear of falling, number of medications, and rheumatic diseases 3,[7][8][9] .…”

“…In addition, falls may be related to the inability to perform activities of daily living independently, whether basic (BADL) or instrumental (IADL) 8,10 . BADL refers to the capacity to selfcare, specifically the ability to dress, take a bath, transfer, feed, go to the bathroom, and have urinary and fecal continence.…”

Segurança do paciente idoso hospitalizado: uma análise do risco de quedas

“…Low educational level prevailed in this sample, constituting a factor which can negatively influence quality of life, and more specifically the ability to understand and acquire information related to healthcare, since other authors have identified that older adults with less education had more reports of the occurrence of falls (18) .…”