Background
Falls are a major cause of mortality, disability and physical limitation in the older people. Korea is rapidly aging and the health problems of the elderly are emerging as major social problems including the aging of the elderly.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to analyze the causes of falls and risk factors for elderly population aged 65 years or older in rural areas, and to identify the differences between falls people and non-falls people based on basic health status, self-assess assessment, and physical evaluation.
Methods
As part of the farmers’ health promotion project, retrospective study was performed from March 2016 to December 2016. A total of 350 elderly people were recruited. The subjects were divided into two groups: 254 faller and 96 non fallers. Participants were asked to visit the hospital once during this period in order to have a questionnaire and a physical evaluation.
Results
The statistically significant factor in the univariate analysis in Falling are female (p=0.001), age (70-79 years) (p=0.003), lives alone (p<0.001), less than middle school graduate (p=0.001), skeletal muscle mass (p=0.004), mini mental state examination (p=0.005), knee osteoarthritis (p=0.003), hip torque mean (p=0.005), hip power mean (p=0.005), knee torque mean (p<0.001) and knee power mean (p<0.001). The multivariate logistic regression model (backward method), female (OR 3.83, 95% CI 1.51–9.72; p=0.0048) and age (70-79 years) (OR 5.25, 95% CI 1.67–16.50; p=0.0046) were independent risk factors for the presence of fall. In the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) analysis, 0.6515 (95% CI 0.58-0.71) for hip torque mean, 0.6516 (95% CI 0.58-0.71) for hip power mean, 0.6596 (95% CI 0.60-0.71) for knee torque and 0.6562 (95% CI 0.60-0.71) for knee power mean. The four AUC values (0.65 < AUC < 0.7) we measured were not significantly relevant because of their less accuracy.
Conclusions
We concluded that especially women and elderly people (70-79 years) can be considered as an important risk factor for falls, so special attention should be paid to this in rural area. In addition, weaked lower extremity strength can be considered as a factor to increase the risk of falling, so efforts should be made to lower the risk of falling by improving lower extremity function.
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