Fear of falling and associated factors in community elderly with cataracts

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate prevalence of the fear of falling of elderly with cataracts living in the community and the associated factors with high concern with falling occurrences. Methods: A cross-sectional, analytical and observational study. It was composed by 86 elderly diagnosed with bilateral cataracts. To quantify the fear of falling among elderly, the scale Falls Efficacy Scale-International-Brasil (FES-I-BRASIL) was used. Other variables were obtained through application of a structured questionnaire. Results: Between participants, 41.9% reported low concern of falling, while 58.1% reported high concern. From those last ones, 52% fell at least once on the past 12 months and, 30% of them are recurrent fallers. The activities "to walk in slippery surfaces", "to walk in irregular surfaces" and, "to walk up and down the stairs" represented higher concern for elderly. Conclusion: Cataracts or any other visual issue predispose falls due to difficulty in overcoming obstacles present in the environment. Fear of falling is especially associated with factors acquired after the first fall episode.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Cascalho,Lorena de Andrade, Paz,Leonardo Petrus da Silva, Romão,Juliana de Faria Fracon e, Menezes,Ruth Losada de
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedade Brasileira de Oftalmologia 2016
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-72802016000500385
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!