Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2017
Journal/Book/Conference Title
BioMed Research International
Volume
2017
DOI of Original Publication
10.1155/2017/5146378
Date of Submission
June 2017
Abstract
Falls are an important health concern among older adults due to age-related changes in the body. Having a medical history of chronic health condition may pose even higher risk of falling. Only few studies have assessed a number of chronic health conditions as risk factor for falls over a large nationally representative sample of US older adults. In this study, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2014 participants aged 65 years and older (n = 159,336) were evaluated. It was found that 29.7% (n = 44,550) of the sample experienced at least one fall and 16.3% (n = 20,444) experienced more than one fall in the past 12 months. According to the study findings, having a medical history of stroke, CKD, arthritis, depression, and diabetes independently predict the risk of first-time falling as well as the risk of recurrent falling in older adult population while controlling for other factors. On the other hand, having a medical history of the heart attack, angina, asthma, and COPD did not predict the risk of first-time falling, but did predict the risk of recurrent falling after experiencing the first fall in this population.
Rights
Copyright © 2017 Yoshita Paliwal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Is Part Of
VCU Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science Publications
Comments
Originally published at https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5146378