Relationship between risk of fall, balance, quality of life and frailty components among older adults

Aim: In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the frailty of elderly people living in Gürçeşme Zübeyde Hanım Nursing Home and to investigate the relationship between risk of fall, loss of balance, quality of life and frailty components. Method: 110 elderly people who over 65 years old were included in our study. We evaluated the frailty by Fried's phenotype, the balance by Berg Equilibrium Test, the risk of fall by Activity-Spesific Balance Confidence Scale, the quality of life by SF- 36 Quality of Life Scale. Data were analyzed by SPSS program. Results: 51 female (46.4%) and 59 males (53.6%), total 110 elderly people were included in the study. 79 people were found to be frail, 28 were pre-frail and 3 were not frail. Weight loss, (47.1% vs. 28.8%, p= 0.04), weakness (86.4%-66.1%, p= 0.01), exhaustion (%56.9 -%30.5, p=0,005) of frailty components and the risk of falling (78.4%-54.2%, p= 0.008) were statistically higher in female than male. Women's Berg Balance Score were significantly lower than men's score (p = 0.014). People over the age of 85 have a higher risk of falling over age 65-74 (87.5% -48.8%, p= 0.009). Frailty, slowness and weakness increase the risk of falling statistically significant (p <0.05). The Berg Balance Test scores were affected statistically significant by all the frailty components except weight loss (p <0.05). Quality of life, the physical functionality, general health, vitality and social functionality scores of the 79 frail people were statistically lower than the 31 non-frail individuals (p <0.05). Conclusions: In the study, it was observed that the frailty, the risk of falling and the loss of balance increased with the incresing age. Quality of life was negatively affected by incresing age. Frailty and its components negatively affect the risk of fall and balance. The presence of frailty or sub-components affects the quality of life negatively. Early diagnosis of frailty, falling, loss of balance and possible accident related to those situation and possible sequelae can be prevented and indirectly quality of life can be improved.