Physical activity, number of medical conditions, and falls in community-dwelling older adults

The study examined relationships between concern for falling, number of medical conditions, physical activity (PA), and one-year fall rate in 60 community-dwelling older adults (24 male, 36 female; 74.8 + 3.5 years old). Falls rate was self-report. The Modified Baecke Questionnaire for Older Adults was used to code the amount of PA the subjects participated in over the same year as the fall history recall. The questionnaire categorized PA into household PA, leisure PA, and sport PA. A total PA score was calculated from the sum of the scores obtained for each of the three PA categories. Simple linear regression revealed an inverse, significant relationship between the total PA score and one-year fall rate (r = -0.273, R2 = 0.074, p = 0.036). No other significant relationships were found. Future research should focus on further exploring relationships between types of physical activity and falls