Epidemiologic characteristics of fall in the elderly in urban and rural areas in Shanghai / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand the epidemiologic characteristics of fall in the elderly in Shanghai, as well as the differences between urban and rural areas, and provide evidence for targeted fall prevention and intervention.@*Methods@#From January to March in 2017, a questionnaire survey was conducted in the elderly aged 60 or above selected from 7 urban communities and 6 rural communities in Shanghai to understand the epidemiologic characteristics of fall in the elderly and analyze the gender and urban-rural differences.@*Results@#In urban area, a total of 3 386 elderly people were surveyed, in whom 441 (13.0%) had fall and 261 (7.7%) were injured after fall. In rural area, a total of 2 826 elderly people were surveyed, in whom 320 (11.3%) had fall and 169 (6.0%) were injured after fall. Fall risk in women were higher than that in men in both urban and rural areas with OR of 1.62 (95%CI 1.42-1.86) and 1.16 (95%CI 1.38-1.98) respectively, but the differences of fall related injury were not significant. Compared with urban areas, fall risk and fall related injury risk were both lower in rural areas with OR of 0.86 (95%CI 0.73-0.99) and 0.74 (95%CI 0.56-0.99). Compared with urban areas, men had lower risk for fall, and women had lower risk for fall related injury with OR of 0.68 (95%CI 0.51-0.90) and 0.66 (95%CI 0.47-0.93) respectively. Fall mainly occurred at home. Fall in urban area more frequently occurred on stairs, and fall in rural area more frequently occurred during farming. More than 60% of the falls had environmental risk factors. Slippery ground and uneven ground were main reasons. The incidence of fracture resulted from fall was high indicated by 89 fracture cases in urban areas (28.2%) and 64 fracture cases in rural areas (36.1%).@*Conclusions@#The risk for fall in Shanghai had gender and urban-rural differences. Targeted intervention should be conducted according to the characteristics of fall in the elderly.