Association between risk for fall and socio-demographic attributes among diabetic elderly patients

Abstract

Background: With advancing age, we notice that the functional and physiological capacity of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems begins to decline gradually, which has a noticeable impact on the motor activity. This age-related deterioration significantly contributes to falls and frequent falls among the elderly. 6611 elderly people die daily as a result of falls, and thus falls become one of the most important public health problems in several countries of the world.Aims of the study: to find out corelation between the risk of falls and the social and demographic characteristics of elderly diabetic patients aged 60 years and over.Methodology: A correlation design was conducted to study the association between risk for fall and sociodemographic attributes among elderly diabetic patients at In the Endocrinology and Diabetes Center affiliated to Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Al-Muthanna Governorate from 18 / December /2021 to 1 /April /2022. A non-probability (purposive) sample of 107 elderly diabetic patients from Diabetes center. To measure the association between risk for fall and socio demographic attributes, the researcher used a questionnaire that consist of (7) items related to socio demographic attributes and to measure the risk for fall the researcher used the berg balance scale that included ( 14) items . To analyze the results, the researcher used descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (hi-squared) test was used.Results: (37.4%) of participants within the age group (60-64) years old. (49.5%) was men, (50.5%) was women. Illiterate (33.6%), (64.5%) of the participants are married, (37.4%) are unemployed, (94.4%) are live with family and (59.8%) are live in Urban. (48.6%) of participants have moderate risk for fall. There was significant relationship between the risk of fall with age, occupation, place of residency. Conclusion:The study concluded that some of socio-demographic characteristic such as age, and occupation and place of residency Increase the risk of falling among elderly diabetic patients while there is no association between the risk of fall and with gender, level of education, marital status, living status among elderly diabetic patients. Recommendations:The study recommended the importance of implementing educational programs on fall prevention in all centers visited by the elderly and the elderly home, because the country lacks such programs to reduce the incidence of falls. Conducting more research on the topic of falls to detect the risk factors of falls among the elderly to reduce these cases.