Fear of Falling and Environmental Factors: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Fear of falling is a geriatric condition that must be understood from both a clinical perspective and from the environment in which older adults live. This review aimed to describe the scientific evidence reported in the last 5 years regarding the fear of falling in older adults and its relationship with environmental factors. The relationships between fear of falling and environmental factors are mainly evidenced in the built environment. Older adults with a fear of falling are described as perceiving the built environment as dangerous when they do not meet the requirements of safety, accessibility, and comfort; they also report the importance of living in communities with controlled crime levels and available social support for older adults to improve their insecurity and feelings of vulnerability.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Fall Risk and Prevention

“…Poor lighting is one of the primary environmental factors that contribute to falls. Seniors may find it challenging to perceive potential dangers in their environment, such as irregular surfaces or obstacles, when there is insufficient illumination (22). Additionally, dimly lit areas can impair seniors' depth perception, making it more difficult for them to estimate distances and avoid tripping over objects.…”

Fear of falling: Scoping review and topic analysis using natural language processing

“…Extensive general research on FoF has been done in previous research, particularly on its health-related determinants and outcomes [1,2,25,26], such as balance [27][28][29], gait speed [30][31][32], depression [33,34], comorbidities [35,36], polypharmacy [37,38], among many others. However, there has yet to be a comprehensive inquiry into mapping FoF studies and research interest areas, particularly with the inclusion of sociodemographic and environmental factors, with the exception of limited scoping reviews in health-related domains of FoF [39][40][41][42][43]. While some research has been conducted on separate domains of FoF, such as Parkinson's disease [41], psychosocial responses [42], environmental factors [43], and common interventions [40], there has never been a comprehensive review to gauge the extent and range of research activity on FoF, including all of the above domains of FoF.…”

“…However, there has yet to be a comprehensive inquiry into mapping FoF studies and research interest areas, particularly with the inclusion of sociodemographic and environmental factors, with the exception of limited scoping reviews in health-related domains of FoF [39][40][41][42][43]. While some research has been conducted on separate domains of FoF, such as Parkinson's disease [41], psychosocial responses [42], environmental factors [43], and common interventions [40], there has never been a comprehensive review to gauge the extent and range of research activity on FoF, including all of the above domains of FoF. This is partly due to the enormity of the task, with almost a thousand English-language research papers on FoF published today.…”

Enhancing Footwear Safety for Fall Prevention in Older Adults: A Comprehensive Review of Design Features

“…Approximately 37.3 million fall incidents necessitating medical history report a fear of falling, which can subsequently have deleterious effects on their overall functionality and quality of life. 7,8) Given these pressing challenges, this comprehensive review aimed to delve into the multifaceted problem of falls among older adults. By synthesizing existing research and insights, this study sought to address critical questions concerning the role of footwear design in mitigating the risk of falls by examining key features of footwear such as fit, fixation, heel height, collar height, slip resistance, and sole/insole hardness.…”