Abstract
Attempts to determine the underlying causes of falls have come to conflicting conclusions, partly because subject groups studied have not been representative of all elderly people. Two hundred and three randomly selected people of 75 years and over, living at home, were visited and questioned about falls experienced in the previous 12 months, and about factors that might be related to falling. Eighty-six subjects (42.4%) had suffered one or more falls during this time, and of fallers, 49 (59.3%) were injured, 9 of them seriously. Women were slightly more likely to have had falls and were more likely to have suffered injury, but no increase in frequency of falls with age was demonstrated. Only a minority of fallers (43.0%) sought medical attention following their fall. Falls outside the home accounted for 39.5% of falls and these were more likely to be due to simple trips or slips. Analysis of the factors related to falls showed a considerable overlap between fallers and non-fallers. Fallers had significantly greater dependency and cognitive impairment, more physical symptoms, and higher scores for anxiety and depression, but there was no association with postural hypotension, neurological abnormalities, or measurements relating to nutritional state. The factors found to be significant on discriminant analysis were combined to determine a “fall risk score”. This type of easily calculated score might be of use to medical and paramedical personnel for assessing the risk of falling among the elderly living at home. (Aging 3: 219–228, 1991)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Petrovsky C.C.: Accidental falls in hospital. Med. J. Aust. 2: 1123–1128, 1967.
Overstall P.W., Exton-Smith A.N., Imms F.J., Johnson A.L.: Falls in the elderly related to postural imbalance. Br. Med. J. 1: 261–264, 1977.
Downton J.: The problems of epidemiological studies of falls. Clin. Rehabil. 1: 243–246, 1987.
Gilleard C.J., Willmot M., Vaddadi K.S.: Self-report measures of mood and morale in elderly depressives. Br. J. Psychiatry 138: 230–235, 1981.
Pattie A.H., Gilleard C.J.: A brief psychogeriatric assessment schedule. Br. J. Psychiatry 127: 489–493, 1975.
Goldberg D.P., Hiller V.F.: A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychol. Med. 9: 139–145, 1979.
Durnin J.V.G.A., Womersley J.: Body fat assessed from total body density and its estimation from skin-fold thickness: measurements on 481 men and women aged from 16–72 years. Br.J. Nutr. 32: 77–97, 1974.
Katz S., Ford A.B., Moskowitz R.W., Jackson B.A., Jaffe M.W.: Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: a standardized measure of biological and psychosocial function. JAMA 185: 914–919, 1963.
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. General Household Survey 1980. HMSO, London, 1982.
Clarke M., Lowry R., Clarke S.: Cognitive impairment in the elderly — a community survey. Age Ageing 15: 278–284, 1986.
Graham H., Livesley B.: Changes in the population aged over 75 of an urban general practice: implications for screening. Br. Med. J. 292: 453–454, 1986.
Sheldon J.H.: The Social Medicine of Old Age. Oxford University Press, London, 1948.
Campbell A.J., Reinken J., Allan B.C., Martinez G.S.: Falls in old age: a study of frequency and related clinical factors. Age Ageing 10: 264–270, 1981.
Prudham D., Evans J.G.: Factors associated with falls in the elderly: a community study. Age Ageing 10: 141–146, 1981.
Gabell A., Simons M.A., Nayak U.S.L.: Falls in the healthy elderly: predisposing causes. Ergonomics 28: 965–975, 1985.
Wild D., Nayak U.S.L., Isaacs B.: How dangerous are falls in old people at home. Br. Med. J. 282: 266–268, 1981.
Sheldon J.H.: On the natural history of falls in old age. Br. Med. J. 2: 1685–1690, 1960.
Waller J.A.: Falls among the elderly — human and environmental factors. Accid. Anal. Prev. 10: 21–33, 1978.
Whitlock F.A., Boyce L., Siskind V.: Accidents in old age. Aust. Fam. Physician 7: 389–399, 1978.
Lucht U.: A prospective study of accidental falls and resulting injuries in the home among elderly people. Acta Socio-Med. Scand. 3: 105–120, 1971.
Morfitt J.M.: Falls in old people at home: intrinsic versus environmental factors in causation. Public Health (London) 97: 115–120, 1983.
Blake A.J., Morgan K., Bendall M.J., Dallosso H., Ebrahim S.B.J., Arie T.H.D., Fentem P.H., Bassey E.J.: Falls by elderly people at home: prevalence and associated factors. Age Ageing 17: 365–372, 1988.
Wollner L., McCarthy S.T., Soper N.D.W., Macy D.J.: Failure of cerebral autoregulation as a cause of brain dysfunction in the elderly. Br. Med. J. 1: 1117–1118, 1979.
Tinetti M.E., Williams T.F., Mayewski R.: Fall risk index for elderly patients based on number of chronic disabilities. Am. J. Med. 80: 429–434, 1986.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Downton, J.H., Andrews, K. Prevalence, characteristics and factors associated with falls among the elderly living at home. Aging Clin Exp Res 3, 219–228 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324009
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324009