title: Falls and self-assessment of eyesight among elderly people: a population-based study in a south Brazilian municipality.
abstract: This paper seeks to verify the association between falls and self-assessment of visual acuity in elderly people by means of a cross-sectional population-based study involving 1593 elderly people (aged 60 or over) from the urban zone of the municipality of Bagé-RS. Poisson regression was used for association analysis. Fall prevalence in the last year was 28.0% (95%CI: 25.8; 30.2), with 45.0% of these having suffered two or more falls in the same period. Elderly people self-assessing their eyesight as bad/very poor (10.0%) or regular (33.3%) showed a linear increase in fall occurrence when compared to individuals who considered their eyesight to be good/excellent. Self-assessment of eyesight showed itself to be an important factor associated with the occurrence of falls. This results entails the need to make progress with tracing elderly people with eyesight difficulties and its possible impact on actions to prevent the occurrence of falls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil. Electronic address: nunesbp@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Bruno Pereira
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: Medicine Faculty, Postgraduate Program in Science Health, Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil; Department of Social Medicine, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mirelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Saes
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando Vinholes
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tomasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Suele Manjourany
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Denise Silva
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: da Silveira
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Program of Nursing, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mariangela Uhlmann
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Augusto
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Facchini
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Program of Nursing, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thumé
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity
keywords: Accidental falls; Aged; Cross-sectional studies; Diagnostic self evaluation; Old age assistance