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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Blood pressure changes on upright tilting predict falls in older people | | Author(s) | Edward Heitterachi, Stephen R Lord, Phillip Meyerkort |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 31, no 3, May 2002 |
| Pages | pp 181-186 |
| Keywords | Blood pressure ; Fainting ; Falls ; Correlation ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Orthostatic hypotension may be an important risk factor for falls, though this has not yet been demonstrated in prospective studies. This may be because conventional methods for measuring blood pressure changes are too imprecise and not optimally timed. 14 men and 56 women aged 62-92 from two retirement villages in Sydney, Australia participated in this study. Their blood pressure, medication use, and symptoms of dizziness were recorded at the start and followed up for 12 months to determine the incidence of falls. Those who fell in the follow-up period had significantly greater decrease in systolic blood pressure when tilted than those who did not fall. Symptoms of dizziness and anti-hypertensive and antidepressant drug use were not significantly associated with systolic blood pressure drops or falls. The findings indicate that both the decrease in blood pressure and the unstable nature of the blood pressure response following upright tilt are useful predictors of falls in older people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020530208 A |
| Classmark | BKL: CTF: OLF: 49: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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