Citation

Paul SS, Sherrington C, Canning CG, Fung VS, Close JC, Lord SR. Neurorehabil. Neural Repair 2014; 28(3): 282-290.

Affiliation

1The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Society of Neurorehabilitation, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1545968313508470

PMID

24243915

Abstract

BACKGROUND: . In order to develop multifaceted fall prevention strategies for people with Parkinson's disease (PD), greater understanding of the impact of physical and cognitive performance on falls is required. OBJECTIVE: . We aimed to identify the relative contribution of a comprehensive range of physical and cognitive risk factors to prospectively-measured falls in a large sample of people with PD and develop an explanatory multivariate fall risk model in this group. METHODS: . MEASURES: of PD signs and symptoms, freezing of gait, balance, mobility, proprioception, leg muscle strength, and cognition were collected on 205 community-dwelling people with PD. Falls were monitored prospectively for 6 months using falls diaries. RESULTS: . A total of 120 participants (59%) fell during follow-up. Freezing of gait (P < .001), dyskinesia (P = .02), impaired anticipatory and reactive balance (P < .001), impaired cognition (P = .002), reduced leg muscle strength (P = .006), and reduced proprioception (P = .04) were significantly associated with future falls in univariate analyses. Freezing of gait (risk ratio [RR] = 1.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-1.05, P = .02), impaired anticipatory (RR = 1.01, 95% CI = 1.00-1.02, P = .03) and reactive (RR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.01-1.58, P = .04) balance, and impaired orientation (RR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.01-1.62, P = .04) maintained significant associations with falls in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: . The study findings elucidate important physical and cognitive determinants of falls in people with PD and may assist in developing efficacious fall prevention strategies for this high-risk group.

Language: en