Citation

Nie XY, Dong XX, Lu H, Li DL, Zhao CH, Huang Y, Pan CW. BMC Geriatr. 2024; 24(1): e660.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12877-024-05245-1

PMID

39112944

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Due to the high prevalence of multimorbidity and realistic health service demands for fall prevention, there is growing interest in the association between multimorbidity and falls. Our study aimed to identify multimorbidity patterns among Chinese older adults and explore the association between multimorbidity patterns and falls.

METHODS: Data from 4,579 Chinese community-dwelling older adults was included in this analysis. Information regarding falls and 10 chronic conditions was collected. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to determine multimorbidity patterns. Regression models were fitted to explore the associations of individual chronic disease or multimorbidity patterns with falls.

RESULTS: Among 4,579 participants, 368 (8.0%) were defined as fallers, including 92 (2.0%) frequent fallers, and multimorbidity affected 2,503 (54.7%) participants. Older adults with multimorbidity were more likely to be fallers [odds ratio (OR) = 1.3, P = 0.02] and frequent fallers (OR = 1.7, P = 0.04). Three multimorbidity patterns were identified (i.e., cardiovascular-metabolic diseases, psycho-cognitive diseases and organic diseases), and the associations between psycho-cognitive diseases/organic diseases and prevalent falls or frequent falls were found to be significant.

CONCLUSIONS: The psycho-cognitive disease pattern and organic disease pattern are significantly associated with falls. Therefore, more attention should be paid to patients with psycho-cognitive diseases and timely, targeted diagnostic and treatment services should be provided in fall prevention.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Risk Factors; Aged; Female; Male; Aged, 80 and over; Older adults; China; Patterns; China/epidemiology; *Accidental Falls/prevention & control; Falls; *Independent Living/trends; *Multimorbidity/trends; Chronic Disease/epidemiology; Multimorbidity