Falls in people post‐Guillain‐Barré syndrome in the United Kingdom: A national cross‐sectional survey of community based adults

Abstract

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a demyelinating peripheral neuropathy with an incidence of between 0.8 and 1.9/100,000 people in Europe and North America (Willison et al., 2016) affecting all age groups, with males and older aged individuals more affected (Hughes & Cornblath, 2005). Heterogeneity of severity ranges from short-lived limb paraesthesia to complete paralysis requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (van Koningsveld et al., 2007). Although generally viewed as restorative, around 20% of people with GBS remain disabled (Hughes & Cornblath, 2005). Between 3% and 7% die in de-

Prevalence of co-morbidity and history of recent infection in patients with neuromuscular disease: A cross-sectional analysis of United Kingdom primary care data

“…The associations we observed with osteoporosis and a recorded hip fracture are not surprising given that NMD patients often suffer from nutritional issues impacting bone health, in addition to low levels of physical activity [ 1 ]. Falls have also been reported in post-GBS patients, with over half the respondents in a recent survey reporting a fall in the last year [ 34 ]. The increase in risk we estimated was quite marked in younger adults compared to the generation population, suggesting that fall prevention methods when developing care plans should be assessed for all adults not just older patients [ 35 ].…”