Citation

Durbin L, Kharrazi RJ, Graber R, Mielenz TJ. Inj. Epidemiol. 2016; 3(1): e4.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th St., Room 516, New York, NY 10032 USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, The author(s), Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s40621-016-0070-y

PMID

26900545

PMCID

PMC4744831

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Social support has been shown to be associated with various positive health outcomes among older adults but has not been previously examined in relation to falls, which are a serious health concern among older adults.

FINDINGS: This study (n = 1000) uses multivariable logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between social contact and perceived availability of social support and falls among older adults. When adjusting for demographic and other covariates neither relationship was significant.

CONCLUSIONS: This study does not find evidence to suggest that social support could be a prevention measure for falls. Future research on this topic should focus on careful definition and precise measurement of the social support construct.

Language: en