Association Between Concerns About Falling and Risk of Injurious Falls in Older Adults: The Role of Balance Impairment

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to examine the extent to which concerns about falling are associated with the risk of injurious falls in older adults, and to explore the role of balance impairment in this association.

Design: Prospective study with a 5-year follow-up.

Setting and participants: Participants were 1281 people, aged ≥60 years (62.5% women), from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen.

Methods: Data on injurious falls during 5 years of follow-up was obtained from national registers. Cox and Laplace regression models were applied to examine injurious falls in relation to concerns about falling (binary variable), balance impairment (one-leg balance test), or an indicator variable with 4 mutually exclusive categories based on the presence of concerns about falling and balance impairment.

Results: There was no statistically significant association between concerns about falling and injurious falls in the total sample when adjusting for covariates. We found significant interactions of concerns about falling with balance impairment and age (<70 vs ≥80 years), so that the association between concerns about falling and injurious falls was more evident in people with better balance and the younger-old participants (P < .05). Having only concerns about falling [hazard ratio (HR) 2.06, 95% CI 1.22, 3.48], only balance impairment (HR 2.22, 95% CI 1.38, 3.56), or both (HR 2.35, 95% CI 1.45, 3.82) were associated with an increased risk of injurious falls compared to those with neither concerns about falling nor balance impairment.

Conclusions and implications: Our results suggest that concerns about falling may increase the risk of injurious falls, especially among younger-old people or those without objective balance impairment.

Keywords: Falls; balance; concern about falling; injury; prospective study.