Association between falls, depression, fear of falling and quality of life in institutionalized elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Falls in the elderly can cause loss of motor function, causing significant damage to their quality of life. Both falls and the fear of falling can be common and cause potentially serious results and, together with depression, are important causes for the loss of autonomy and functional independence of these individuals. Objective: to verify the relationship between the event of a fall and the fear of falling, depression and the quality of life of institutionalized elderly people. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in four long-stay institutions. The instruments used were: Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Falls Efficacy Scale (assesses fear of falling), WHOQOL-OLD and WHOQOL-BREF (for quality of life). Results: The sample consisted of 24 institutionalized elderly, 15 women and 9 men, with an average age of 77 years. Statistically significant results showed that women tend to fall more than men (p=0.036), the group that suffered a fall had a greater fear of death and dying in relation to the other group (p=0.032) and that the higher the score of GDS, the greater the fear of falling of these institutionalized elderly. Conclusion: This study showed that elderly people with a history of falls in the last year are more vulnerable to developing fear of suffering a new fall and, therefore, less confidence to carry out basic activities of daily living. In addition, falls are highly related to the quality of life of these elderly people.