Abstract
Background/ purpose: older people are usually afraid of falling. The purpose of this study was to determine the fear of falling and underlying related risk factors among elderly people from Hamadan, Iran. Methods: A total of 321 elderly residents, aged 60 years and older, from 6 district heal th centers and 2 nursing homes were enrolled in this cross -sectional study. Fear of falling was evaluated by the Falls Efficacy Scale - International (FES-I) questionnaire, which contains 16 questions about different daily activities for elderly individuals. The study methods were compliant with the STROBE checklist. Data were analyzed with SPSS16 software. Results: The mean age of participants was 70± 7.46 years. We noted that 70% of participants had positive medical history of chronic diseases of which the most prevalent types were: osteoarthritis (63%), hypertension (42%) and diabetes (19%). The mean FES-I score was 27.83±9.87. The FES-I results indicated that 16.1% of participants had low fear of falling (score: 16-19), 37.6% had moderate fear (score: 20 -27), and 46.3% had severe fear (score: 28 -64). The fear of falling score in the study participants had a significant relationship with age, gender (female), living condition (alone), previous disease history and medication intake (all p values <0.05). Conclusions: The high mean FES-I score (27.83±9.83) alongside high proportion of moderate and severe fear of falling (83.9%) in this study indicates that elderly people from Hamadan, Iran are very concerned about falling. Fear of falling should be specificall y addressed for elderly people and the underlying risk factors should also be investigated.
Highlights
Falls increase in frequency with age and result in injuries like pelvic fracture which can lead to impaired performance, lifelong disability, hospitalization and even death. [1] Approximately one in three seniors over the age of 65 falls to the ground at least once a year. [2, 3] The high incidence of falls associated with physical injuries in the elderly is a public health problem
(15) The prevalence of fear of falling varies from 25% to 85% in different societies.[16]. Factors associated with the risk of falling include; age, gender, level of education, previous history of falling, social participation status, marital status, smoking and alcohol consumption.[17,18,19,20] According to a recent study in Iran, 43% of elderly Iranian people claim that they have a moderate or high fear of falling.[21]. In this study, we intended to assess the prevalence of fear of falling in elderly individuals in Hamadan, Iran in 2019 because of the few numbers of studies that pertain to this issue
Scores of 16-19 indicate low fear, whereas 20-27 represent moderate fear and 28-64 indicate severe fear.[22]. The reliability of the Iranian version of the questionnaire is calculated 95% based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient and 98% based on test-retest (ICC) reliability in different studies.[20, 23] the questionnaires were self-completed by literate participants, an experienced health education instructor assisted both illiterate participants and those with problems that negatively prevented them from answering the questionnaire
Summary
Falls increase in frequency with age and result in injuries like pelvic fracture which can lead to impaired performance, lifelong disability, hospitalization and even death. [1] Approximately one in three seniors over the age of 65 falls to the ground at least once a year. [2, 3] The high incidence of falls associated with physical injuries in the elderly is a public health problem. Falls increase in frequency with age and result in injuries like pelvic fracture which can lead to impaired performance, lifelong disability, hospitalization and even death. [9] Older people are usually afraid of falling, which is the most common phobia in the elderly and can lead to low self-confidence in doing daily activities in such a way that it will not be possible to perform normal daily activities without the risk of falling.[10, 11] fear of falling leads to reduced daily activities and increased physical dependency, nursing home admissions, depression and anxiety and generally reduces the quality of life.[12,13,14] In urban India, quality of life in the elderly is affected by impairments and disabilities. The results of this research could provide guidance for identifying elderly people at risk
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