Comparison of Factors Associated with Fear of Falling between Older Adults with and without a Fall History

Seonhye Lee, Eunmi Oh and Gwi-Ryung Son Hong
Additional contact information
Seonhye Lee: Department of Nursing, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology, #33 Dongjinro, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52725, Korea
Eunmi Oh: School of Nursing, Hanyang University, #222 Wangsimliro, Sungdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Korea
Gwi-Ryung Son Hong: School of Nursing, Hanyang University, #222 Wangsimliro, Sungdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Korea

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Background : Although fear of falling (FOF) has been studied since FOF has negative consequences for the elderly, there is limited information about the risk factors of FOF, including the environment. The purpose of this study was to describe individual and environmental factors of FOF between those with and without a fall history from an ecological aspect and to examine whether individual and environmental factors differently affect the FOF according to the state of fall history in community-dwelling older adults in Korea. Methods : Data from the 2014 Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Adults were used. Participants were 7730 older adults. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the predictors of FOF. Results : According to the ecological model, female and discomfort with the neighborhood environment were significantly associated with greater odds of reporting FOF in both older adults with fall history and those without. A significant interaction was not observed between any variable of FOF in participants with and without a fall history. Conclusions : An ecological model including individual and environmental factors should be considered when conducting research and designing programs and decision policies related to FOF for older adults with and without a history of falling.

Keywords: fear of falling; older adults; environmental factors; ecological model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/5/982/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/5/982/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:5:p:982-:d:146140

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().