Falls and fear of falling in a sample of centenarians: the role of multimorbidity, pain and anxiety

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, L.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Araújo, Lia, Duarte, Natália, Ribeiro, Oscar
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/5425
• topic: anxiety; falls; centenarians; fear of falling; multimorbidity

Background: To explore the recent history of falls and the existence of fear of falling in a sample of centenarians, and to identify factors associated with both conditions. Methods: The sample included 109 centenarians from two Portuguese studies. The two main outcomes of this study are fear of falling and history of fall(s). Results: Results revealed that more than a half (51.4%) of the participants had fallen in the last 5 years and that the percentage of fear of falling was 78.9%. No association was found between the two conditions. The factors associated with each one were found to be different: number of health con- ditions for history of falls, and pain frequency and anxiety for fear of falling. Conclusions: The relationship between anxiety and fear of falling reinforces the importance of screening both conditions as it can improve their detec- tion and treatment. The established relationship between a high number of health conditions (common at very advanced ages) and falls demands greater attention in fall prevention initiatives specifically targeted to the extremely elderly.