Health issues assessment of people aged 65 or older : Identifing risk factors associated with fall risk

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine fall status and identify fall related risk factors of community dwellig people aged 65 or older whom are attained by research assistants working for family medicine department of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine. Methods: 380 people aged 65 or older who voleentered to participate were included in the study. Our descriptive and cross-sectional designed study was carried out by discussing face to face via an questionnaire set. Obtained data was analyzed by using SPSS version 23. Chi-square, Mann Whitney U test and Spearman correlation analysis were used for statistical comparison. p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: %47 of respondents were female, %77 married, %88 literated. %61 were on middle income level. %25 needed care at any level. %41 had polypharmacy, %48 were multimorbid. %19,7 of respondents experienced at least one fall, %5,8 experienced repeated falls during last year. %49 of falls occured in the course of a walk. %35 sought medical attention after a fall incident. %13 had a fracture or admitted to hospital as a serious result. %71 of respondents had fear of falling at any level. Conclusions: In our study female gender, livng alone, need for long term care, multimorbidity, postural hypotension, arthritis, osteoporosis, having any eye disease, having an operated eye for any reason, balance disorder, vertigo, ürgensi, difficulty with gait, nocturia, having an orthopedic problem in lower extremity, fear of falling, medium or high risk of timed up and go test or performance oriented mability assesment were identified as a risk factor for falls in elderly. Keywords: Aged, Accidental Falls, Risk Factors