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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Fear of falling
— measurement strategy, prevalence, risk factors and consequences among older persons | | Author(s) | Alice C Sheffer, Marieke J Schuurmans, Nynke van Dijk |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 37, no 1, January 2008 |
| Pages | pp 19-24 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Falls ; Anxiety ; At risk ; Living in the community ; Evaluation ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Fear of falling (FOF) is a major health problem in older people living in communities, present not only in those who have fallen but also in older people who have never experienced a fall. This study's aims were to: study methods to measure FOF; study the prevalence of FOF among fallers and non-fallers; identify factors related to FOF; and investigate the relationship between FOF and possible consequences for community-dwelling older people. A systematic review identified 28 relevant studies from a systematic search of several databases and by cross-checking selected articles for other relevant publications. Due to the many different kinds of measurements used, the reported prevalence of FOF varied between 3% and 85%. The main risk factors for developing FOF are at least one fall, being female, and being older. The main consequences were identified as a decline in physical and mental performance, an increased risk of falling, and progressive loss of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This review shows that there is great variation in the reported prevalence of FOF in older people, and that there are multiple associated factors. Knowledge of risk factors may be useful in developing multidimensional strategies to decrease FOF and improve quality of life. However, the only identifiable risk of FOF is a previous fall. In order to measure the impact of interventions, a uniform measurement strategy for FOF should be adopted, and follow-up studies should be conducted. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080304201 A |
| Classmark | OLF: ENP: CA3: K4: 4C: 64A |
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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