The falls and the fear of falling among elderly institutionalized

Abstract

In the present study it is intended to characterize the history of falls and to evaluate the fear to fall in aged institutionalized. The sample is composed for 113 institutionalized aged people, 32 men and 81 women with a average 82,96 ± 7,03 age of years. The data had been collected by means of a questionnaire and statistical analyzed (descriptive statistics, parametric tests - Test T and Anova - Test U-Mann Whitney, and Test of Kruskal-Wallis – and the Test of Tukey). The results point in the direction of that the women present a bigger number of falls (24.8%) and greater fear to fall (Med=55). The falls had occurred in its majority in the context of the room of the institutions. It was verified that people who had at least a fall experience present greater fear to fall comparatively (Med=55) with that they had not the same had no incident of fall in period of time (Med=77). Our results come to strengthen the hypothesis of the changeable sex to be able to be considered a factor of fall risk. Aged that they present a history of falls seems to be more vulnerable to develop the fear to fall.