Citation

Davis JC, Marra CA, Liu-Ambrose TY. Age Ageing 2011; 40(3): 340-346.

Affiliation

Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/ageing/afr019

PMID

21436152

Abstract

BACKGROUND: falls-related self-efficacy is associated with falls, falls-related injury and subsequent functional decline which may lead to poor health-related quality-of-life (HRQL). To our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the independent contribution of falls-related self-efficacy to HRQL. Our primary objective was to determine whether falls-related self-efficacy is independently associated HRQL, measured by quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), in older women after accounting for known covariates. Method: we conducted a secondary analysis of 135 community-dwelling older women aged 65-75 years who participated in a 12-month randomised controlled trial of resistance training. We assessed falls-related self-efficacy using the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale and QALYs calculated from the EuroQol EQ-5D (EQ-5D). RESULTS: our multivariate linear regression model demonstrated that falls-related self-efficacy as assessed using the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale was independently associated with QALYs after accounting for age, group, education, functional co-morbidity index, general mobility, global cognition and physiological falls risk. The final model explained 52% of the variation in QALYs. The ABC Scale accounted for 5% of the total variance in the final model. CONCLUSIONS: although falls-related self-efficacy was independently associated with QALYs after controlling for a number of known variables, there may well be other factors not investigated, such as risk taking behaviour and psychological measures, which could account for some of the association. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00426881.

Language: en