Association between Fall History and Gait, Balance, Physical Activity, Depression, Fear of Falling, and Motor Capacity: A 6-Month Follow-Up Study

Catherine Park, Md Moin Uddin Atique, Ramkinker Mishra and Bijan Najafi ()
Additional contact information
Catherine Park: Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Md Moin Uddin Atique: Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Ramkinker Mishra: Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Bijan Najafi: Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-14

Abstract: Maintaining function in older adults is key to the quality of life and longevity. This study examined the potential impact of falls on accelerating further deterioration over time in gait, balance, physical activity, depression, fear of falling, and motor capacity in older adults. 163 ambulatory older adults (age = 76.5 ± 7.7 years) participated and were followed for 6 months. They were classified into fallers or non-fallers based on a history of falling within the past year. At baseline and 6 months, all participants were objectively assessed for gait, balance, and physical activity using wearable sensors. Additional assessments included psychosocial concerns (depression and fear of falling) and motor capacity (Timed Up and Go test). The fallers showed lower gait performance, less physical activity, lower depression level, higher fear of falling, and less motor capacity than non-fallers at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Results also revealed acceleration in physical activity and motor capacity decline compared to non-fallers at a 6-month follow-up. Our findings suggest that falls would accelerate deterioration in both physical activity and motor performance and highlight the need for effective therapy to reduce the consequences of falls in older adults.

Keywords: fall history; consequences of falls; wearables; older adults; gait; balance; physical activity; depression; fear of falling; motor capacity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10785/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10785/ (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:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10785-:d:901412

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 ().