The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of fear of falling and its association with fall, avoidance of activity, balance deficits and risk of fall in community-dwelling older individuals. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in general community setting. Fifty community-dwelling elderly (mean age of 77.98 ± 2.83years), ambulatory, without any severe medical conditions participated in the study. Main outcome measures of the study were fear of falling (FOF), fall and activity avoidance assessed through an interview-based questionnaire; balance assessed using Berg Balance Scale (BBS); balance confidence assessed using Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale. FOF and associated avoidance of activity was reported by 60% and 52% of the elderly respectively. In subjects reporting FOF, 76% were fallers, 44% being non-fallers. BBS score of the subjects reporting FOF was significantly lower (42.7 ± 10.12) than the subjects without FOF (53.65 ± 3.51). Also, the subjects with FOF had a score below 46, the cut-off point for predicting risk of falling. In subjects having FOF, 56.66% had low risk of falls and 43.33% had medium risk of falls whereas all the subjects with no fear of fall had low risk of falls. Subjects FOF reported a significantly lower balance confidence on ABC scale as compared to subjects without FOF. Thus, it is concluded that FOF and associated avoidance of activity are highly prevalent in the community-dwelling older people. FOF is significantly associated with fall/s, balance deficits with an increased fall risk, avoidance of activity and low balance confidence in doing activities of daily living. FOF can be considered as a significant health problem of equal importance to a fall. This study highlights the importance of identifying FOF and addressing factors related to it in the rehabilitation of the elderly.
| Published in | American Journal of Applied Psychology (Volume 6, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13 |
| Page(s) | 153-157 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Fear of Fall, Avoidance of Activities, Balance Confidence, Elderly
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APA Style
Akulwar Isha S., Dohadwala Sakina. (2017). Fear of Falling and Associated Variables in Community-Dwelling Elderly. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 6(6), 153-157. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13
ACS Style
Akulwar Isha S.; Dohadwala Sakina. Fear of Falling and Associated Variables in Community-Dwelling Elderly. Am. J. Appl. Psychol. 2017, 6(6), 153-157. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13
AMA Style
Akulwar Isha S., Dohadwala Sakina. Fear of Falling and Associated Variables in Community-Dwelling Elderly. Am J Appl Psychol. 2017;6(6):153-157. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13,
author = {Akulwar Isha S. and Dohadwala Sakina},
title = {Fear of Falling and Associated Variables in Community-Dwelling Elderly},
journal = {American Journal of Applied Psychology},
volume = {6},
number = {6},
pages = {153-157},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajap.20170606.13},
abstract = {The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of fear of falling and its association with fall, avoidance of activity, balance deficits and risk of fall in community-dwelling older individuals. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in general community setting. Fifty community-dwelling elderly (mean age of 77.98 ± 2.83years), ambulatory, without any severe medical conditions participated in the study. Main outcome measures of the study were fear of falling (FOF), fall and activity avoidance assessed through an interview-based questionnaire; balance assessed using Berg Balance Scale (BBS); balance confidence assessed using Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale. FOF and associated avoidance of activity was reported by 60% and 52% of the elderly respectively. In subjects reporting FOF, 76% were fallers, 44% being non-fallers. BBS score of the subjects reporting FOF was significantly lower (42.7 ± 10.12) than the subjects without FOF (53.65 ± 3.51). Also, the subjects with FOF had a score below 46, the cut-off point for predicting risk of falling. In subjects having FOF, 56.66% had low risk of falls and 43.33% had medium risk of falls whereas all the subjects with no fear of fall had low risk of falls. Subjects FOF reported a significantly lower balance confidence on ABC scale as compared to subjects without FOF. Thus, it is concluded that FOF and associated avoidance of activity are highly prevalent in the community-dwelling older people. FOF is significantly associated with fall/s, balance deficits with an increased fall risk, avoidance of activity and low balance confidence in doing activities of daily living. FOF can be considered as a significant health problem of equal importance to a fall. This study highlights the importance of identifying FOF and addressing factors related to it in the rehabilitation of the elderly.},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Fear of Falling and Associated Variables in Community-Dwelling Elderly AU - Akulwar Isha S. AU - Dohadwala Sakina Y1 - 2017/11/02 PY - 2017 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13 T2 - American Journal of Applied Psychology JF - American Journal of Applied Psychology JO - American Journal of Applied Psychology SP - 153 EP - 157 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-5672 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20170606.13 AB - The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of fear of falling and its association with fall, avoidance of activity, balance deficits and risk of fall in community-dwelling older individuals. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in general community setting. Fifty community-dwelling elderly (mean age of 77.98 ± 2.83years), ambulatory, without any severe medical conditions participated in the study. Main outcome measures of the study were fear of falling (FOF), fall and activity avoidance assessed through an interview-based questionnaire; balance assessed using Berg Balance Scale (BBS); balance confidence assessed using Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale. FOF and associated avoidance of activity was reported by 60% and 52% of the elderly respectively. In subjects reporting FOF, 76% were fallers, 44% being non-fallers. BBS score of the subjects reporting FOF was significantly lower (42.7 ± 10.12) than the subjects without FOF (53.65 ± 3.51). Also, the subjects with FOF had a score below 46, the cut-off point for predicting risk of falling. In subjects having FOF, 56.66% had low risk of falls and 43.33% had medium risk of falls whereas all the subjects with no fear of fall had low risk of falls. Subjects FOF reported a significantly lower balance confidence on ABC scale as compared to subjects without FOF. Thus, it is concluded that FOF and associated avoidance of activity are highly prevalent in the community-dwelling older people. FOF is significantly associated with fall/s, balance deficits with an increased fall risk, avoidance of activity and low balance confidence in doing activities of daily living. FOF can be considered as a significant health problem of equal importance to a fall. This study highlights the importance of identifying FOF and addressing factors related to it in the rehabilitation of the elderly. VL - 6 IS - 6 ER -
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