Falls among Elderly Egyptian Females; Prevalence and Common Risk Factors

Abstract

As people grow older they are increasingly at risk of falls and consequent injuries. Falls may be the first indication of an undetected illness. The prevention of falls is of major importance because they engender considerable mortality, morbidity and suffering for older people and their families, and incurs social costs due to hospital and nursing home admissions. As most of falls are associated with one or more identifiable risk factors and attention to these risk factors can significantly reduce rates of falls, this study assessed prevalence and common risk factors of falls using a substantial number of valid and reliable falls risk screening tools. This study is a cross section study conducted to assess the prevalence and common risk factors of falls among elderly Egyptian females. The study included 200 elderly females with mean age 66.9 years, recruited from the geriatrics outpatient clinic in Ain-Shams University Hospital. Each participant was subjected to comprehensive geriatric assessment including full history taking with detailed history about falls and common risk factors, clinical examination, assessment of cognition using mini-mental state examination (MMSE), screening for depression using geriatric depression scale (GDS-15), assessment of function using ADL & IADL scales and assessment of falls risk using five valid and reliable falls risk screening tools. The study showed that the prevalence of falls among elderly Egyptian females was 35.5 % with number of falls ranging from 1-15 fall in the last 12 months and median number of falls among positive cases with history of falls is 3 times. As most of falls are associated with one or more identifiable risk factors, this study showed that falls have multifactorial risk factors with the strongest associations were found with cases with cognitive impairment, depression, functional impairment in ADL and IADL, balance disorders, gait disorders , arrhythmias, CV disease, PN, visual impairment, and urinary incontinence, and the difference between fallers and non fallers was highly significant statistically.