Fall awareness as a determining factor of this event among elderly community residents

OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence of accidental falls among elderly persons in their homes, and to evaluate determining factors to that, including intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors, as well as the awareness about falls, assessed by the Falls Risk Awareness Questionnaire (FRAQ-Brazil). METHOD: It consisted of a quantitative, transversal, and descriptive study, performed with 472 elderly persons through interview. Data were analyzed by the chi-squared test with a confidence interval of 95%. RESULTS: The average age of the sample was 70.6 years and most of them were female. Among the sample, 55.2% referred previous episodes of fall. The majority of them self-reported having diseases associated with gait disturbance and used medicines that could cause falls. It was observed less falls among elderly with higher level of awareness about risk factors. CONCLUSION: A high prevalence of accidental falls and exposure of the elderly persons to several independent and concomitant risk factors were observed. Greater awareness level about falls seems to be a preventive factor, presenting a higher association with falls than level of education and income.