ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1643699
Incidence and risk factors of falls in older people with chronic comorbidities in community: a cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted- Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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Objective To investigate the prevalence of falls among elderly individuals with comorbidities in community and to analyze the risk factors. Methods Using multi-stage stratified random sampling method, a total of 886 older people aged over 60 years with comorbidities were selected from 10 communities as research subjects between April 2022 and December 2023. Data collection involved the use of a general information questionnaire, frail scale, self-rating anxiety scale, fall risk self-rating scale, standing up and walking timing test, and Berg Balance Scale. The patients were categorized into two groups based on fall occurrence, and χ2 test and logistic regression analysis were employed to identify the risk factors for falls. Results The incidence of falls was 24.8% (220/886). The logistic regression analysis indicated that factors such as frailty, visual impairments, anxiety, fall risk score, physical exercise, social support, category of residence, and social interaction (OR=0.535, 1.826, 4.284, 5.584, 1.965, 1.649, 2.308,1.806; all P<0.05) were significantly associated with falls in older people with comorbidities. Conclusion The incidence of falls is higher among older people with comorbidities in the community, it is essential to prioritize older people with comorbidities who have limited daily social activities, insufficient social support, visual impairments, high fall risk scores, and impaired sit-stand and walking tests in order to prevent falls and promote healthy aging.
Keywords: Comorbidity, Health ecological model, falls, Risk factors, elderly people
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Siqin, Yuanhua, Yiming, Demin, Yuan and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
LIU Siqin, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
Xiaoli Yuan, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
PENG Yan, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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