Accumulation of Sensory Difficulties Predicts Fear of Falling in Older Women

Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether the accumulation of sensory difficulties predicts fear of falling (FOF), and whether the traits correlate with each other regardless of familial factors. Methods: Self-reported hearing, vision and balance difficulties, and FOF were assessed using structured questionnaires at the baseline and after a 3-year follow-up in 63-to 76-year-old women (n = 434). Results: Among the women without FOF at baseline (n = 245), 41% reported FOF at follow-up. Increasing numbers of sensory difficulties at baseline predicted higher incidence of FOF. The relationship between accumulated sensory difficulties and FOF was not mediated by familial factors. Discussion: The accumulation of multiple sensory difficulties may hinder older people from receiving compensatory information about body position and environment, thus jeopardizing a person's confidence

Prevalence of fear of falling in older adults, and its associations with clinical, functional and psychosocial factors: The Frailty in Brazilian Older People‐Rio de Janeiro Study

“…Furthermore, hearing loss was associated with fear of falling, corroborating the results of Viljanen et al; they report that a lack of sensory perception caused by sensory difficulties, such as vision, hearing and balance problems, induces fear of falling. 25 However, this association was only present when a subject had difficulty in more than one sense; when only one sense was affected, other sensory modalities can probably compensate. However, there was no association between visual impairment and fear of falling in the present study.…”

Prospective Study on the Impact of Fear of Falling on Functional Decline among Community Dwelling Elderly Women

“…These variables were considered to potential mediators which might be consequences of FOF in previous studies [3,5,10,18,19]. These data come from the 2012 survey.…”

The Older Finnish Twin Cohort — 45 Years of Follow-up

“…There are multiple dissertations and publications about FITSA pheno-and genotypes; for example, according to quantitative genetic analyses, muscle strength, power and walking speed have a genetic effect in common (Tiainen et al, 2007). Studies about falls have revealed that familial factors underlie the risk of falling (Pajala et al, 2006) and that falls, as well as fear of falling, are associated with vision and hearing acuity (Kulmala et al, 2009;Viljanen et al, 2009Viljanen et al, , 2013. Hearing and vision are both largely accounted for by genetic differences between individuals (Pärssinen et al, 2013(Pärssinen et al, , 2015(Pärssinen et al, , 2016(Pärssinen et al, , 2019Viljanen, Era et al, 2007;.…”