Determination falling prevalence and the risks of falls in elders living in the district of Bahcelievler, İstanbul

Abstract

Objective:Falling is a major problem that is common and brings with it many problems in the old ages. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of falls and the risks of falls in elders living in the district of Bahçelievler, Istanbul. Material and Methods: The study was conducted with 954 elders who accepted the interview at home. A 21-item personal information form structured in the study was used as the data collection tool and the Itaki Fall Risk Scale. Questions on age, gender, weight-height, marital status, occupation, income status, education level were included in the personal information form. Minor risk factors were scored as 1 point and major risk factors were scored as 5 points on the scale. If 0-4 points as total score is at low risk, 5 points and above are considered at high risk. The evaluation of the data was done with SPSS 22.0 for Windows. Results: The mean age of the elders was 74.90±7.99 years, 64.8% (n=618) of them were female and 35.2% (n=336) of them were male. 58.8% (n=561) of the elders reported falling at least once. 63.6% of the women and 50% of the men had at least one falling, and there was a statistically significant difference when compared with falling prevalence according to genders (p< 0.001). In all chronic diseases except diabetes and paralysis, the frequency of falling was found to be higher than those without disease (p<0.05). As the age increased, the increase in the score of Itaki Fall Risk Scale was observed and there was a statistically significant difference between the groups (p<0.001). It was found that 93% of the elderly (n= 887) had a high risk of falling according to Itaki Fall Risk Scale. The frequency of risky drug use, and four or more drug use, all chronic illnesses except for paralysis was found to be statistically higher in elders with a high risk of falling (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study shows that the prevalence of falls and the risk of falls are high in individuals aged 65 years and older. We think that it is extremely important to make evaluations of fall risk factors and to take preventive measures against falling in the process of fall prevention in the elderly.