Citation

Handrigan GA, Maltais N, Gagné M, Lamontagne P, Hamel D, Teasdale N, Hue O, Corbeil P, Brown JP, Jean S. Osteoporos. Int. 2016; 28(2): 483-494.

Affiliation

Department of Medicine, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00198-016-3745-x

PMID

27562568

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and falls among community-dwelling elderly.

RESULTS indicate that obesity is associated with increased falls and there appears to be a sex-specific difference with obese men at higher risk of falling. Obesity is identified as a risk factor for falls in men.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of falls, fall-related injuries, and obesity has increased over the last decade. The objectives of this study were to investigate sex-specific association and dose-response relationship between BMI and falls (and related injuries) among community-dwelling elderly.

METHODS: Our study sample consisted of 15,860 adults aged 65 years or older (6399 men and 9461 women) from the 2008-2009 Canadian Community Health Survey-Healthy Aging (CCHS-HA). Falls, fall-related injuries, and BMI measures were self-reported. For both sex, dose-response curves presenting the relationship between BMI, falls, and fall-related injuries were first examined. Thereafter, multivariate logistic regression analyses were also performed to investigate these relationships after adjustment for potentially confounding variables.

RESULTS: Of women, 21.7 % reported a fall and 16.9 % of men. The dose-response relationship between BMI and prevalence of falls showed that underweight and obese individuals reported falling more than normal and overweight individuals; this being more apparent in men than women. Finally, the dose relationship between BMI and prevalence of fall-related injuries showed that only obese men seem more likely to have sustained a fall-related injury.

RESULTS from the multivariate analysis showed that obesity in men was significantly associated with higher odds of falling odds ratio (OR) 1.33 (1.04-1.70) and was not significantly associated with higher odds of fall-related injuries OR 1.10 (0.66-1.84) over a 12-month period compared to normal weight men. For women, obesity was not significantly associated with higher fall prevalence OR 0.99 (0.79-1.25) and fall-related injuries OR 0.71 (0.51-1.00).

CONCLUSION: Obesity is associated with self-reported falls, and there appears to be a sex-specific difference in elderly persons.

Language: en