Abstract
Thai older adults living in a long-term institutional care are prone to falls twice or third fold than Thai older adults living at home. In spite of extrinsic factors such as environmental hazards in the long-term institutional care appropriate and could revise than community. Identifying the risk factors and implementing a program will reduce falls. A case-control study was conducted to examine describe the intrinsic risk factors of falls among 132 Thai older adults in the long-term institutional care. Data were collected two times. Firstly, older adult who had two or more falls during the past were enrolled in the faller group. For every case of faller, three non-fallers were randomly selected and assigned to a control group: for a total 33 cases and 99 controls. Secondly, all of them were interviewed, physical examined, and tested by using a fall risk assessment form that developed by researchers.
The results revealed that: advanced age, Barthel activity daily living score, body mass index, cognitive impairment, balance impairment, mobility impairment, chronic diseases, medication use and history of falls were significantly associated with falls. Three factors including mobility impairment, medication use, and history of falls could predict falls for 61.1%. These finding provide information about intrinsic risk factors of falls for developing a screening guideline and conducting a fall management.