TY - JOUR
PY - 2019//
TI - Multisite pain and self-reported falls in older people: systematic review and meta-analysis
JO - Arthritis research and therapy
A1 - Welsh, Victoria K.
A1 - Clarson, Lorna E.
A1 - Mallen, Christian D.
A1 - McBeth, John
SP - e67
EP - e67
VL - 21
IS - 1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Multisite pain and falls are common in older people, and isolated studies have identified multisite pain as a potential falls risk factor. This study aims to synthesise published literature to further explore the relationship between multisite pain and falls and to quantify associated risks.
METHODS: Bibliographic databases were searched from inception to December 2017. Studies of community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and older with a multisite pain measurement and a falls outcome were included. Two reviewers screened articles, undertook quality assessment and extracted data. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool the effect estimate (odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI)). Heterogeneity was assessed by I2; sensitivity analyses used adjusted risk estimates and exclusively longitudinal studies.
RESULTS: The search identified 49,577 articles, 3145 underwent abstract review, 22 articles were included in the systematic review and 18 were included in the meta-analysis. The unadjusted pooled OR of 1.82 (95%CI 1.55-2.13), demonstrating that those reporting multisite pain are at increased risk of falls, is supported by the adjusted pooled OR of 1.56 (95%CI 1.39-1.74). Multisite pain predicts future falls risk (OR = 1.74 (95%CI 1.57-1.93)). For high-quality studies, those reporting multisite pain have double the odds of a future fall compared to their pain-free counterparts.
CONCLUSION: Multisite pain is associated with an increased future falls risk in community-dwelling older people. Increasing public awareness of multisite pain as a falls risk factor and advising health and social care professionals to identify older people with multisite pain to signpost accordingly will enable timely falls prevention strategies to be implemented.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1478-6354 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13075-019-1847-5 ID - ref1 ER -