Assessment of risk of fall in elderly people in the urban field practice area of Community Medicine Department, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Background: More than 1/3rd of older adults fall each year and 10-20% of falls cause serious injuries. Vast majority of these falls (>99.9%) are unintentional. This research is focused to identify prevalence of the risk of fall among elderly and associated factors were assessed in the present study. We are going assess the risk of falls and associated factors among elderly.Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in urban field practice area of Community Medicine Department, Andhra Medical College among people of age >60 years during November 2017. A sample size of 100 is obtained by taking prevalence of falls among elderly on the last 6 months as 36.8% and absolute precision is 10%. A structured interview schedule has been adopted for the study which was developed by Peninsula Health Falls Prevention Services.Results: Mean age is 69±7 years. 65% are females. 20% have medium to high risk of fall. 17% have severely impaired cognitive status. 19% have history of fall one or more times in last 3–12 months.Conclusions: 20% risk of fall may not be neglected as fall in elderly can lead to disability. It is recommended to health care providers to assess the risk of fall among elderly patients seeking their services using fall risk assessment tool (FRAT) and advice accordingly.

Fall risk among older adults residing in Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal

“…13,18 However, a study conducted in United Arab Emirates showed that about half of the respondents had a history of fall in the past two years 4 and found significant association. 7,16 Similarly, present study found that the level of fall risk is statistically significant with age and vision problem (p=<0.05). Similar findings were found in the studies conducted in United State Emirates 4 , United State 9 , Saudi Arabia 7 , Brazil 12 and India 18,21 which showed that age is statistically significant.…”

“…Likewise, the studies showed level of fall risk was statistically significant with vision problem. 16,21,22 Moreover, in present study, the level of fall risk was not significant with other variables such as sex, chronic diseases, urinary problems, use of assistive devices and taking number of medication (p=>0.05). However, other studies found that fall risks was significantly associated with sex 4,11,18,23 and chronic diseases.…”

“…However, a study conducted in India showed only 20% of older adults had medium to high risk of falls. 16,17 Similarly, a study of Malaysia showed only 13.3% of institutionalized elderly had moderate to high risk of falls. 20 In our study, only 8.2% of older adults reported history of falls within last 12 months and found no association between the level of fall risk and history of fall.…”

“…13 Studies showed that older adult had medium to high risk of fall. 16,17 Fall risk assessment is important to prevent injuries and reduce the cost of care. Furthermore, addressing the risk factors can reduce the rates of falling.…”