The Study of Falls among the Eldelry in the Communtiy, Suphan Buri Province

Abstract

The objectives of this cross-sectional research were to study fall situation and factors related to falls among the elderly in the community, Suphan Buri province. The samples were 150 elderly resided in communities in Suphan Buri province who met the inclusion criteria and were randomly selected by stratified and simple random samplings. Data were collected by interviewing using questionnaires containing the dimensions of demographic characteristics, history of falls, the internal and external physical factors of residential area as well as activities and daily living behaviors. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and Chi-square tests.

The result showed that most of the subjects were females (66.0%) and aged 60-69 years old (53.3%). Most of them were unemployed (53.7%) and had some underlying health conditions (74.7%). In the past six months, the incidence of falls was 26.0 percent. Number of falls in women was five times higher than those among men, with stumbling as the frequent causes (66.7%). The significant factors related to falls including demographic characteristics such as gender (X²=6.050, p=0.014), perceptions on health status (X²=8.766, p=0.033), hearing problems (X²=6.726, p=0.010), walking balancing (X²=6.043, p=0.014), changing of gestures (X²=5.085, p=0.024). The behavioral factors included bathing (X²=5.736, p=0.017), having animals (X²=4.141, p=0.042), and activities of daily living (X²=12.116, p=0.007). Environmental
factors included having threshold or stepping on different level area (X²=4.796, p=0.029), staircase (X²=27.972, p=0.000) and carpets (X²=8.887, p=0.031) at the 0.05 significant level.

It is recommended that health care providers should evaluate the risks for fall in elderly residing in community and create strategies to reduce falls. The awareness of the potential consequences of falls among the elderly should be promoted.