Intrinsic Factors of Home Fall Among Older Adults in Qazvin City, Iran, 2018

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and predictors of home fall among elderly people living in Qazvin City, Iran, 2018.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 300 elderly people aged 60 years or higher who were selected by cluster sampling technique. Data were collected by demographic and chronic diseases checklist, checklist of the characteristics of fall in the last year, Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), self-reported health scale, and Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. The logistic regression model was conducted to determine predictors of home falls.

The mean age of the 300 older people who participated in the study was 70.11±8.90 years. Approximately, one-third of them (n=100, 33.3%) reported at least one fall during the last year. The results of the logistic regression revealed that the number of medicines used (OR=5.31, CI=1.44-19.49), history of the physical disease (OR=1.31, CI=1.01-1.70), age (OR=1.09, CI=1.03-1.15), balance control (OR=1.04, CI=0.07-1.01), and physical activity (OR=0.72, CI=0.57-0.92) were internal predictors of the fall among older adults.

The findings of our study disclosed that the incidence of falls is rather high among older people. The frequency of falls increased by advancing age, increase the number of physical illnesses and medicines used, poor balance, and a reduction in physical activity.