Falls in African American and white community-dwelling elderly residents

Few studies have examined the relationship of race to falls. This study evaluated the association between potential risk factors and falls in a representative sample of 1049 African American and 1947 white participants of the second in-person wave of the Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2002-07, Vol.57 (7), p.M473-M478
Main Authors: Hanlon, Joseph T, Landerman, Lawrence R, Fillenbaum, Gerda G, Studenski, Stephanie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidental Falls - statistics & numerical data
African Americans
Aged
Black or African American
Black People
Falls
Female
Humans
Male
Nursing homes
Older people
Risk Factors
White People
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Summary:Few studies have examined the relationship of race to falls. This study evaluated the association between potential risk factors and falls in a representative sample of 1049 African American and 1947 white participants of the second in-person wave of the Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly. Information about sociodemographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, health status, visual function, and drug use was determined during baseline in-home interviews. Three years later, falls in the previous 12 months were assessed by self-report. One or more falls occurred in 22.2% of the participants. Nearly half the fallers reported more than one fall. Multivariable analysis revealed that African Americans were less likely than whites to have any fall (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.94). Increased age and education, arthritis, diabetes, and history of broken bones were also significant (p
ISSN:1079-5006
1758-535X
DOI:10.1093/gerona/57.7.m473