Evaluation of fear of falling on life quality of elderly

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of fear of falling on quality of life in elderly people with diabetes. The population of the analytical study consisted of 65 elderly people with diabetes who agreed to participate in the study. In the study, general information forms, Effect of Fall Scale, Morse Fall Risk Scale, Modified Morisky Scale and Quality of Life Scale (SF-36) were used (p <0.05). Percentages, averages, Fisher's chi-square test, Yates chi-square test, Pearson chi-square test, Mann Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test were used to evaluate the data. The mean age of the cases was 76,70 ± 7,59 years and %33,8 of the cases were are women. The mean duration of diabetes diagnosis was 10,78 ± 6,77 years and the duration of treatment was 10,75 ± 6,71 years. The mean fear of falling score was 81,98 ± 16,35, the mean fall risk score was 39,53 ± 27,05, and the mean compliance score was 4,44 ± 1,38. It was found that the lowest score obtained from the quality of life subscale of the subjects was from the vitality subscale and the highest score was from the pain sub-dimension; physical dimension score was 55,28 ± 24,34, mental dimension score was 57,75 ± 16,73 and total score of the scale was 56,52 ± 19,18. It was determined that the duration of stay in the nursing home, gender, occupation, duration of OAD use, the number of diagnoses, having more than 3 diagnoses, and fear of wheelchair fall (p <0. 05). There was a correlation between fall risk and compliance with treatment and fear of falling (p <0.05). Fear of falling was found to affect quality of life in patients (p <0.05). In order to improve the quality of life in elderly individuals, studies on determining the risk of falls and increasing compliance with treatment, and attempts to reduce the factors that cause fear of falling have been proposed.