Abstract
Background: Fear of falling (FoF) is a common issue among older people, impacting on psychological health, functional performance and mortality. Many factors associated with fear of falling have been investigated but little is known about the role of home hazards. Home hazards can be due to unsafe environmental and functional features. This study is aims to evaluate the association between home hazards with fear of falling among community-dwelling individuals aged 55 years and over.Methods: Baseline data with 1,489 older individuals from the Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research (MELoR) study were analyzed. Home visits for interview and observations in the home were conducted with the participants. FoF was established with a single-item question and home hazards with the Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST).Results: The majority (76.4%) of older participants experienced FoF. The history of falls was not associated with FoF (p = 0.868), but FoF was associated with participants limiting their daily activities (p < 0.001). Home hazards were less likely (p = 0.023) and functional issues were more likely (p < 0.001) to be associated with a high degree of FoF. However, both home hazards domains were not associated with activity restriction due to FoF.Conclusions: Education about home hazards from the perspective of person-environment interaction may encourage home hazards management and reduce FoF which should be evaluated in future studies.
Highlights
Falls are known as a major issue for older people
Chi-square analyses found that a history of falls in the previous month was not associated with fear of falling either on falls combined inside and outside the home (X2 = 0.028; p = 0.868) or falls inside home only (X2 = 1.434; p = 0.231)
The rating of ‘very much’ fearful of falling was associated with reduced HFenvironment (p = 0.023) score and but increased HF-function score (p < 0.001) when compared to individuals with no fear. Among those who were fearful of falling (n = 1,039), binary logistic regression yielded no significant association of home hazards with whether or not the participants limited or did not limit their daily activities due to fear of falling on both HOME FAST subscales; HF-environment (p = 0.205) or HF-function (p = 0.105). This study indicates those with a high level of fear of falling were less likely to have environmental home hazards but were more
Summary
Falls are known as a major issue for older people. More than 400 risk factors associated with falls have been identified and these can be classified into two major domains; intrinsic and extrinsic [3, 6]. Home hazards are a factor which has received much attention in falls investigations with older people. Fear of falling (FoF) is a common issue among older people, impacting on psychological health, functional performance and mortality. Many factors associated with fear of falling have been investigated but little is known about the role of home hazards. This study is aims to evaluate the association between home hazards with fear of falling among community-dwelling individuals aged 55 years and over
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