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Association of fear of falling with frailty in community‐dwelling older adults: A cross‐sectional study
Author(s) -
Qin Yuan,
Li Junxin,
McPhillips Miranda,
Lukkahatai Nada,
Yu Fang,
Li Kun
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/nhs.12840
Subject(s) - fear of falling , falling (accident) , cross sectional study , gerontology , logistic regression , medicine , association (psychology) , injury prevention , poison control , suicide prevention , psychology , environmental health , pathology , psychotherapist
This study aimed to describe frailty and fear of falling and examine the cross‐sectional association between frailty and fear of falling in community‐dwelling older adults in China. We recruited 165 older adults from five selected communities in the five districts of Changchun, Jilin Province. Participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, the Short Falls Efficacy Scale‐International, and the Tilburg Frailty Indicator. We found that 60% of our participants were frail and that 81% reported a fear of falling. Using binary logistic regression, we found that the participants with fear of falling were 7.2 times more likely to be frail. These findings suggest that fear of falling should be regularly screened in clinical practice to help identify older adults with greater risks of frailty. Future longitudinal studies of larger sample size are needed to confirm the association. Moreover, frailty prevention programs that include strategies to reduce the fear of falling should be tested among community‐dwelling older adults.