login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
Older People's Fall Risk Increased by Fear
This indicates that measures of both actual and perceived fall risk should be included in fall risk assessments to help tailor interventions for preventing falls in older people, say the authors.
Fear of falling is common in older people and is associated with poor balance, anxiety, depression and falls. But the problem of irrational fear has been neglected in the scientific literature.
So a team of researchers from Australia and Belgium set out to improve their understanding of fear of falling and its impact on the risk of falls.
Five hundred people, aged 70 to 90 years, living in Sydney took part in the study and underwent an extensive medical and neuropsychological assessment. Actual and perceived fall risks were then estimated using recognised scoring scales and participants were followed up monthly over a one-year period.
The researchers found that both actual fall risk and perceived fall risk independently contribute to a person's future fall risk.
Further analysis was then used to split the sample into four groups based on the disparity between actual and perceived risk.
Most people had an accurate perception of their fall risk. Those in the "vigorous" group (low actual and low perceived fall risk) were considered at low risk of future significant falls, while those in the "aware" group (high actual and high perceived fall risk) were considered at high risk of future significant falls.
|
|
|
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
- News Quick Links
| News Categories: |
| » | Cardio-Pulmonary Function can be a Strong Indicator for Survival Chances of Breast Cancer Patients |
| » | Post Surgery Will the Tumour Return? New Breast Cancer Test to Predict Exactly |
| » | Scientists Develop Compound That Triggers Cancer Cell Death |
| » | Iraqi National Hopes to Find Affordable Treatment for His Cancer in India |
| » | New Technique can Help Doctors Detect Pancreatic Cancer |
| More Cancer News | |
|
