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Prevalence of Fall and Associated Factors Among Community-Dwelling European Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

  • Original Research
  • Physical Frailty
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Abstract

Aim

As a person ages, the risk of fall increases, which affects quality of life and represents a financial burden to health- and social-systems, and a greater morbidity and mortality risk. Fall leads to decreased social contact, anxiety, long-term physical disability, severe dependency and hospitalizations. Currently, few studies address this phenomenon using a uniform methodology; therefore, this study aims to explore the prevalence of fall and associated-variables in older adults across Europe.

Methods

In this cross-sectional analysis, we used data from Wave 6 of SHARE. The prevalence of fall was assessed through the answer “falling down” to the question “For the past six months at least, have you been bothered by any of the health conditions on this card?”. Multilevel logistic regression was used, using fall as a dependent variable. Multilevel univariable logistic regression models were made to identify potential associated factors.

Results

From the 41,098 participants, 56.3% were female, and the average age was of 70.0 ± 8.9 years. The prevalence of fall was 8.2% (CI 8.0% to 8.4%), being higher in women (10.1% vs. 5.8%) and increasing with age. Age, female gender, being frail or pre-frail, higher scores on the EURO-D scale, polypharmacy and fear of falling were found to be significantly associated with fall.

Conclusions

We found that fall is prevalent in the European community-dwelling population, with variations between countries. As a public health priority, identification of the variables associated with fall is important in order to identify/monitor the risk in older groups and develop tailored and cost-effective interventions for fall prevention.

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Acknowledgements

This work used data from the SHARE Project, which has been funded by the European Commission through the fifth framework program (Project QLK6-CT-2001-00360 in the thematic program Quality of Life). Further support by the European Commission through the sixth framework program (Projects SHARE-I3, Rl I-CT-2006-062193, as an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative, COMPARE, CIT5-CT-2005-028857, as a project in Priority 7, Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge Based Society, and SHARE-LIFE [CIT4-CT-2006-028812]), through the seventh framework program (SHARE-PREP [No 211909], SHARE-LEAP [No. 227822] and M4 [No. 261982], and through Horizon 2020 [SHARE-DEV3 No. 676536] and SERISS [No. 654221]) are gratefully acknowledged. This work received financial support FCT/MCTES through national funds UIDB/04378/2020, and FCT under the grant attributed to Luis Midäo (SFRH/BD/137090/2018).

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Author notes

  1. Both authors contributed equal to the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCIBIO/REQUIMTE, PORTO4AGEING - Competences Centre on Active and Healthy Ageing of the University of Porto, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    M. Almada, P. Brochado, L. Midão & Elísio Costa

  2. ACES Entre Douro e Vouga I - Feira Arouca, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 3. Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    D. Portela

  3. Laboratory of Biochemistry, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313, Porto, Portugal

    L. Midão & Elísio Costa

Authors
  1. M. Almada
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  2. P. Brochado
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  3. D. Portela
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  4. L. Midão
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  5. Elísio Costa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elísio Costa.

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Conflict of interest: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed

Ethical standards: The SHARE study is subjected to continuous ethics review, and from wave 4 onwards, it was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Council of the Max Planck Society. This study required no ethics approval once it was performed using publicly available data.

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Almada, M., Brochado, P., Portela, D. et al. Prevalence of Fall and Associated Factors Among Community-Dwelling European Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study. J Frailty Aging 10, 10–16 (2021). https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2020.44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2020.44

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