Evaluation of Balance and Walk and their Relationship to the Occurrence of Falls in Elderly

Abstract

Introduction: falls are a geriatric syndrome, and among the risk factors there are the balance and walking problems, becoming necessary the evaluation of these parameters for targeting care to prevent falls.Objective: evaluating the balance and the walk as predictors of the risk of falls in the elderly. Methods:A cross-sectional, exploratory and quantitative study conducted with 130 elderly. There were evaluated the balance and the walking through the Tinetti Scale and the data were analyzed using statistical software. The study was approved by the ethics Committee under the advice number 963.157.Results: 60% of the sample presented an average risk for falls, and the average test of balance and walking was lower among older people with a history of falls. Conclusion:it is important that nurses perform multidimensional geriatric assessment in order to detect changes and minimize the risk of falls in the elderly.