Prevalence of balance disorders and its association with the risk of falls in the geriatric population in tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of balance disorders and their association with the risk of falls in the geriatric population in tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar.

Study design: It is a descriptive cross-sectional survey study.

Place and duration of study: The study was conducted in some government tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar i.e., KTH, L.R.H, and HMC. The time duration for our research was 6 months i.e., from January to June 2023.

Material and Methods: The age of all participants was 65 or above. A total of 184 people participated in the research and among them there were 106 males and 78 females. For the collection of data, we used the Berg Balance Scale (BBS). The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) consists of 14 items and every point is marked from 0 to 4, where 0 is severe and 4 is normal. The total score on BBS was 56.

Results: A total of 25 males and 16 females lie between 0 to 20 and had high risks of falls. 129 people lie in 21 to 40 and had a moderate risk of falls. Among them, 70 males and 59 females have moderate risks of falls. Those people who had a mild risk of falls were 14 in number, and among them 11 were males and 3 were females.

Conclusion: We concluded that the senior population were affected by balance disorder and suffered from the risk of fall. In our study, the prevalence of risk of falls was higher in the male population than compared to the female population.

Keywords: Balance disorder, risk of falls, geriatric population.

PDF

References

Llompart-Pou JA, Pérez-Bárcena J, Chico-Fernández M, Sánchez-Casado M, Raurich JM. Severe trauma in the geriatric population. World journal of critical care medicine. 2017;6(2):99.

Cauley JA. The demography of aging. The epidemiology of Aging. 2012:3-14.

Day JC. Population profile of the United States. US Census Bureau Retrieved January. 2008;25:2010.

Harman D. Aging: overview. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2001;928(1):1-21.

Furner SE, Brody JA, Jankowski LM. Epidemiology and aging. Geriatric medicine. 1997:37-43.

Değer TB, Saraç ZF, Savaş ES, Akçiçek SF. The relationship of balance disorders with falling, the effect of health problems, and social life on postural balance in the elderly living in a district in Turkey. Geriatrics. 2019;4(2):37.

Noohu MM, Dey AB, Hussain ME. Relevance of balance measurement tools and balance training for fall prevention in older adults. Journal of Clinical Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2014;5(2):31-5.

Borowicz A, Zasadzka E, Gaczkowska A, Gawłowska O, Pawlaczyk M. Assessing gait and balance impairment in elderly residents of nursing homes. Journal of Physical Therapy Science. 2016;28(9):2486-90.

Osoba MY, Rao AK, Agrawal SK, Lalwani AK. Balance and gait in the elderly: A contemporary review. Laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology. 2019;4(1):143-53.

Eibling D. Balance disorders in older adults. Clinics in geriatric medicine. 2018;34(2):175-81.

Turner AJ, Chander H, Knight AC. Falls in geriatric populations and hydrotherapy as an intervention: a brief review. Geriatrics. 2018;3(4):71.

Khanuja K, Joki J, Bachmann G, Cuccurullo S. Gait and balance in the aging population: Fall prevention using innovation and technology. Maturitas. 2018;110:51-6.

Criter RE, Honaker JA. Identifying balance measures is most likely to identify recent falls. Journal of geriatric physical therapy. 2016;39(1):30-7.

Fuller GF. Falls in the elderly. American family physician. 2000;61(7):2159.

Jia H, Lubetkin EI, DeMichele K, Stark DS, Zack MM, Thompson WW. Prevalence, risk factors, and burden of disease for falls and balance or walking problems among older adults in the US. Preventive medicine. 2019;126:105737.

Cesari M, Landi F, Torre S, Onder G, Lattanzio F, Bernabei R. Prevalence and risk factors for falls in an older community-dwelling population. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. 2002;57(11):M722-M6.

Urrunaga-Pastor D, Moncada-Mapelli E, Runzer-Colmenares FM, Bailon-Valdez Z, Samper-Ternent R, Rodriguez-Mañas L, et al. Factors associated with poor balance ability in older adults of nine high-altitude communities. Archives of gerontology and geriatrics. 2018;77:108-14.

Sharif SI, Al-Harbi AB, Al-Shihabi AM, Al-Daour DS, Sharif RS. Falls in the elderly: assessment of prevalence and risk factors. Pharmacy Practice (Granada). 2018;16(3).

Gale CR, Cooper C, Aihie Sayer A. Prevalence and risk factors for falls in older men and women: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Age and aging. 2016;45(6):789-94.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2023 Muhammad Talha, Shafiq Ur Rahman, Suliman Ahman , Inbesat Shaukat , Marjan Gul , Khwaja Mubashir Waseem