Investigating the fear of falling in active and non-active elderly people resident and non-resident of nursing homes Download PDF

Abstract This comparative study was conducted using field method. Subjects of this study included all elderly people who were residents of nursing homes (Tehran) and residents of family homes (Tehran). The sample of study included 45 people selected randomly using convenient sampling method and elderly people in each group aged 60 to 80 years. Additionally, active elderly people were selected purposefully, according to the score obtained from daily living activities questionnaire and public walking continuously in one recent year, and non-active elderly people included those who did not obtain the desired score in daily living activities questionnaire and did not perform public walking or did not it continuously in one recent year. Measuring instruments consisted of fear of falling in the elderly people questionnaire, everyday activities questionnaire, and Berg Balance Scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained 0.75 for fear of falling questionnaire, and it was obtained 0.98 for Berg Balance Scale. For the analysis of data, single sample t test, Pearson correlation and regression test at the 0.05 level were used through SPSS 20 software. The results showed that fear of falling is more or less equal in women with a mean of 87.9 and men with mean of 89.7. In addition, fear of falling in elderly people living in nursing homes (with mean of 84.9) is more than that in elderly people living in family homes (with mean of 91.7), and fear of falling in active people with mean of 123.2 is more than that in non-active people with mean of 63.7.