Discrepancy between quarterly recall and annual recall of falls: A survey of older adults

Abstract

Background: Accurate measurement of the frequency of falls is challenging because falls can only be self-reported. We hypothesized that quarterly surveys over a year would be superior to a 1-time annual survey for older adults to recall the number of falls they experienced more accurately. Methods: We recruited 317 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older at a senior welfare center in Seoul, Korea. Older adults without cognitive deficit were included for follow-up. All eligible participants were surveyed via telephone every 3 months over 1-year period by trained investigators and asked to recall their total number of falls over the last 1 year at the end of the study. Results: Two hundred forty-seven participants completed all follow-ups, and 58 of them reported at least 1 fall per year. Twenty-nine participants recalled the same number of falls in 4 quarterly surveys and 1-year survey and the other 29 participants recalled differently. Participants who fell more than once (16, 55.2%) had a higher recall discrepancy than those who fell only once (11, 37.9%) according to the sum of quarterly surveys. Among 58 fallers, 56 reported falling in quarterly surveys, and 47 reported falling in the 1-year survey, indicating an approximately 19% reduction in the rate of recall in the 1-year survey. Conclusion: Repeated surveys with a shorter recall period of 3 months or less may yield a more accurate measurement of falls than a survey with a recall period of 1 year.