Examination of useful items for the assessment of fall risk in the community-dwelling elderly Japanese population.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to select useful items for assessing fall risk in healthy elderly Japanese individuals.


METHODS
A total of 965 healthy elderly Japanese subjects aged ≥60 years (349 males 70.4 ± 7.1 years, 616 females 69.9 ± 7.1 years) participated in this study. Of these, 16.6% had suffered from a previous fall. We assumed five fall risk factors: symptoms of falling, physical function, disease and physical symptoms, environment, and behavior and character. Eighty-six items were selected to represent these factors. To confirm the component items for each risk factor, we performed factor analysis (principle factor solution and varimax rotation). The high-fall risk response rate was also calculated for each item, and significant differences in this rate were examined between groups of those who had and not had experienced a fall.


RESULTS
Useful items were selected using the following criteria: (1) items showing a significant difference in high fall risk response rate between faller and non-faller groups were selected as useful items; (2) items showing low factor loading (<0.4) for any factor were deleted as inappropriate items; (3) the top two items showing a greater amount of the difference in high fall risk response rate among the representative items for each factor. A total of 50 items were selected from each fall risk factor (symptoms of falling, 3 items; physical function, 22 items; disease and physical symptom, 13 items; environment, 4 items; behavior and character, 8 items).


CONCLUSIONS
Based on our results, the selected items can comprehensively assess the fall risk of a healthy elderly Japanese population. In addition, the assessment items for physical function comprised items of different levels of difficulty, and these are able to gradually and comprehensively assess physical function.
Demura
Shinichi
S
Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.
Sato
Susumu
S
Yokoya
Tomohisa
T
Sato
Toshiro
T