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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on May 6, 2009
Age and Ageing 2009 38(4):423-428; doi:10.1093/ageing/afp053
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society 2009. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Falls and fear of falling: burden, beliefs and behaviours

Rebecca Boyd and Judy A. Stevens

Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, NE Mailstop F-62, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA

Address correspondence to: Rebecca Boyd. Tel: 1-770-488-3922; Fax: 1-770-488-1317. Email: Rboyd{at}cdc.gov

Objectives: this study estimated the frequency of recent falls and prevalence of fear of falling among adults aged 65 and older.

Design: a cross-sectional, list-assisted random digit dialling telephone survey of US adults from 2001 to 2003.

Subjects: 1,709 adults aged 65 or older who spoke either English or Spanish.

Methods: prevalence estimates were calculated for recent falls, fall injuries, fear of falling and fall prevention beliefs and behaviours.

Results: an estimated 3.5 million, or 9.6%, of older adults reported falling at least once in the past 3 months. About 36.2% of all older adults said that they were moderately or very afraid of falling. Few older adults who fell in the past 3 months reported making any changes to prevent future falls.

Conclusions: the high prevalence of falls and fear of falling among US older adults is of concern. Both can result in adverse health outcomes including decreased quality of life, functional limitations, restricted activity and depression. Older adults’ fear of falling and their reluctance to adopt behaviours that could prevent future falls should be considered when designing fall prevention programmes.

Keywords: falls, fear of falling, injury, elderly

Received 12 January 2009; accepted in revised form 12 March 2009.


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