Falls in nonagenarians living in their own homes: the Nonasantfeliu study

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of falls and their circumstances in non-institutionalized people older than 89 years and living in an urban community.

Design: Cross-sectional cohort study.

Setting: Community-based study.

Participants: 137 nonagenarians living at home.

Measurements: We evaluated sociodemographic data, capacity to perform basic activities according to the Barthel Index (BI) and instrumental activities on the Lawton-Brody Index (LI), cognition with the Spanish version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MEC), near visual acuity by the Snellen test, and auditory acuity with the whisper test.

Results: Ninety-nine women (72%) and 38 men with an average age of 93.07 years (0.7) were included. 48.1% of them had suffered a fall during the last year, and in 20% of cases this had happened on more than one occasion. In 5.7% of cases, falls led to fractures. Factors associated with falls were a lower LI and a greater number of prescribed drugs. In the multivariate analysis the only factor related to falls was the number of drugs taken (p>0.001, odds ratio 0.785, 95% confidence interval 0.676-0.912).

Conclusions: Measures to prevent falls among nonagenarians should be intensified due to their high frequency. In this age group the increase in the percentage of falls is mainly related to the higher number of drugs taken.