Study Of Relationship Between Fear Of Falling & Ability To Sit On & Rise From The Floor In Elderly Population

ABSTRACT

Background: Falls has been well established as one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among older adults.Falling in elderly persons can lead to disability, hospitalizations, and premature death. It can also lead to reduced levels of independence, poorer quality of life, and high levels of anxiety. It is proven that the elderly develop a fear of fall (FOF) due to the above mentioned consequences. They develop FOF with or without the history of fall. Increasing age is a significant predictor of FOF. FOF thus cause restriction in social participation and also restrictions in activities of daily living (ADL). Sitting on the floor is a tradition or a habit of Indians during activities like eating, praying, socializing etc., thus making it an important ADL. Thus, sitting and rising from the floor is a basic functional task for Indian population. The inability to sit and get up from the floor is closely related to the risk of falling, and if a fall has occurred, the capacity to return to an upright position is critical. Materials and Methods: The study included 210 community dwelling elderly population of an age group of 60-90 yrs, with an ability to sit on and get up from the floor. Individuals with any musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory and neurological conditions were excluded. A physical assessment was done which included two tests. 1. Falls Efficacy Scale – International (in hindi) to assess fear of fall 2. Sitting Rising Test (SRT) to assess the ability to sit on and get up from the floor. A partial correlation analysis was conducted to find a relationship between Fear of Fall and the ability to sit on the floor after controlling for age. Alpha level is set as 0.05. Spearman’s rho test was used. Result: According to Spearman’s Rho’s Test of Correlation, Correlation between Fall Efficacy Scale – International & Sitting – Rising Test is -0.352. Thus showing that there is a Low Negative Correlation between the Fear of Fall and Ability to Sit on and Get up From the Floor. Conclusion: There is a relationship between Fear of Fall and the ability to sit on and get up from the floor in the elderly population.