Falls in unilateral lower limb amputees living in the community. A Portuguese study

• Autor(a) principal: Engenheiro, Gonçalo Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Pinheiro, João, Costa, Joana Santos, Cordeiro, Amílcar, Ramos, Susana, Pereira, Pedro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/105536; https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.12615
• topic: Accidental Falls; Amputation/rehabilitation; Amputees/rehabilitation; Lower Extremity; Amputação/reabilitação; Amputados/reabilitação; Extremidade Inferior; Quedas Acidentais; Accidental Falls; Adult; Aged; Amputation, Surgical; Amputees; Cross-Sectional Studies; Fear; Female; Humans; Lower Extremity; Male; Middle Aged; Portugal; Artificial Limbs

amputees that are autonomous in the community, identifying differences between transfemoral and transtibial amputees and assessing fear of falling between fallers and non-fallers. Material and Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study of consecutive community-dwelling unilateral lower limb adult amputees of any aetiology, attending outpatient consultation in a Portuguese Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine central and university hospital department. Inclusion criteria: a prior 12 week individualised rehabilitation program for prosthesis training; regular prosthesis use for more than one year with autonomous gait; and a Functional Independence Measure® score equal to or greater than 100. Injury severity was classified according to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® injury falls measure. In order to assess walking performance over short distances and fear of falling we used the 10-meter walk test and the Falls Efficacy Scale, respectively. Results: In a sample of 52 lower limb amputees, mainly men (80.8%) and of traumatic aetiology (63.5%), with a mean age of 57.21 ± 11.55 years, 36.5% reported at least one fall in the previous 12 months, all classified as minor injuries. Transfemoral amputees (n = 23) presented a higher number of falls (2.22 ± 3.23, p = 0.025) and lower gait velocity (0.77 ± 0.26 m per second, p < 0.001). Regarding fear of falling, we found no significant differences between fallers and non-fallers. Discussion: The prevalence of falls was low and of minor severity. Transfemoral amputees fell more often and were slower. There were no reported differences in fear of falling between groups. Conclusion: This paper contributes information about Portuguese lower limb amputees, whose studies are scarce and are rarely dedicated to falling.