Age-related fall risk characteristics in Japanese community-dwelling elderly

• 作者: Kenji Takahashi Shinichi Demura Susumu Sato Toshiro Sato
• 来源期刊: 流行病学期刊(英文)
• 学科: 医学
• 关键词: Prevalence of HIGH-RISK SYMPTOM INCIDENCE of FALL FALL Risk Type
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（2）
• 页码范围: 33-39
• 页数: 7页
• 分类号: R73

摘要

This study aimed to determine age-related fall risk characteristics among 2324 Japanese community-dwelling elderly through comparisons between young-old and old-old populations. Fall risk characteristics associated with “physical function”, “disease and physical symptom”, “behavior and character”, and “environment” were evaluated, and whether each individual has a high-risk symptom for each risk factor was assessed. The frequencies of individuals for all 16 risk types, which were determined by a combination of the four risk factors, were calculated. The prevalence of each risk type and the incidence of falling in each risk type were calculated within the young-old and old-old groups, and significant differences between these percentages were examined using the chi-square test. The prevalence of the no high-risk symptom group was significantly lower in the old-old group (17.0%) than in the young-old group (45.2%). Although there was no significant difference in the prevalence of the single high-risk symptom group, the prevalence of the two or more high-risk symptom groups was significantly higher in the old-old group. The incidence of fall among the elderly with high-risk symptoms did not change with age, although the incidence of fall with no high-risk symptom increased in the old-old group. Furthermore, high prevalence was observed in risk types with high-risk symptoms for “physical function” and “behavior and character”, particularly in the symptoms of gait, going up and down stairs, and fear of falling. These age-related differences are interesting and meaningful.