The Prevalence and Associated Factors of the in-home Falls of the Elderly

재가노인의 낙상에 영향을 미치는 요인

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the realities related with the in-home falls of the elderly and also the factors that affect on the fails. Method: The data collection was carried out from January 10 to 13, 2005. The subjects of this study were 201 in-home elderly people over age 60 who resided at G city of Jeollabuk-do. Result: The following are the results from the analysis of collected data with using the SPSS program. 1. The number of people who experienced fall injuries was 51.7% within three years. Most cases of falls occurred in winter (52.4%), on roads (52.9%), wearing sports shoes (56.7%), when walking (56.7%), loosing their balance (54.8%), and slipping (54.8%). 2. The factors yielding the difference between the groups of elderly with the experience of fail injury and the group of elderly with no experience of falls showed a statistical significance for gender (p=.000), last academic career (p=.049), and number of people in the family (p=.041). 3. Among the factors related with health, the factors yielding the difference between the group of elderly with the experience of falls and the group of elderly with no experience of fails showed statistical significance for drinking (p=.015), dizziness (p=.000) and level of drug intakes (p=.015). 4. The elderly with the experience of fall injury as compared with the group of aged people with no experience of falls showed a higher degree of depression (p=.009). 5. From the result of logistic regression analysis to explore the factors affecting the experience of fall injury, it was found that there was a significant result for gender (p=.002) and depression (p=.018). Women as compared with men and the elderly with depression showed a higher rate of danger in falls. Conclusion: Based on the above results, it is expected that fall prevention programs are needed with regard to the general characteristics and health related characteristics, that is, the individual danger factors should be focused on such depression and gender as being the most important variables affecting the experience of falls.