Setting the criterion for fall risk screening for healthy community-dwelling elderly

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a criterion for screening high risk elderly using Demura's fall risk assessment chart (DFRA), compared with the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of gerontology (TMIG) fall risk assessment chart. Participants included 1122 healthy elderly individuals aged 60 years and over (380 males and 742 females) 15.8% of whom had experienced a fall. We assessed fall risk of the elderly by DFRA and TMIG. To develop a criterion for screening high fall risk subjects among community-dwelling elderly, receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted using fall experience (separated into the categories of faller and non-faller) and the following fall risk scale scores: (1) TMIG score, (2) DFRA score, and (3) potential for falling score according to the DFRA (summing the scores of three items). In ROC analyses, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for evaluating the potential for falling gave a value of 0.797 (95% CI=0.759–0.834) which proved better than the evaluation of the overall TMIG (0.654, 95% CI=0.600–0.706) and DFRA scores (0.680, 95% CI=0.633–0.727). Assessment of the potential for falling and fall experience are of benefit in screening for elderly persons deemed to be at a high fall risk. Further examinations based on the prospective data setting will be required.