Assessing the risk of falls of older people using specialized diagnostic tests

Florczak Aleksander, Szmelcer Beniamin, Krakowska Natalia, Fortuna Aleksandra, Wszelaki Patrycja, Zaborna Daria, Wilczyński Michał, Ciepłuch Justyna, Skierkowska Natalia, Wąsicki Mariusz, Modrzejewski Mateusz, Kędziora‑Kornatowska Kornelia. Assessing the risk of falls of older people using specialized diagnostic tests. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(8):397-405. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3376972 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/7326 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2019; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 05.08.2019. Revised: 15.08.2019. Accepted: 26.08.2019. Assessing the risk of falls of older people using specialized diagnostic tests Aleksander Florczak1, Beniamin Szmelcer1, Natalia Krakowska1, Aleksandra Fortuna1, Patrycja Wszelaki1, Daria Zaborna1, Michał Wilczyński1, Justyna Ciepłuch1, Natalia Skierkowska1, Mariusz Wąsicki1, Mateusz Modrzejewski1, Kornelia Kędziora-Kornatowska1 1Faculty of Health Sciences, Department and Clinic of Geriatrics, Nicolaus Copernicus University Abstract: Background: The phenomenon of population aging, resulting in an increase in the number of elderly people in need of medical assistance, necessitated the development of geriatric medicine. Its key assumption is to improve the quality of life of older people through early recognition, prevention and treatment of diseases of old age. Material and methods: Analysis of available literature, articles in the Google Scholar and PubMed database using keywords: geriatrics, aging process, falls Results: The fall belongs to a group of great geriatric problems contributing to the phenomenon of senile disability. The result of disturbances in the balance and problems associated with the weakening of the musculoskeletal system is a fall, which has very serious consequences for the health and functioning of an older person. The most important diagnostic tests related to falls of older people include: Timed Up & Go Test (TUG), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), The Step Test, Stop Walking When Talking (SWWT), Four Square Step Test (FSST) Conclusions: Falling older people is statistically one of the biggest problems of this age group, and at the same time causing a huge number of complications in the lives of geriatric patients, which is why their prevention is so important. There is a further need for research and discussion on the effectiveness of forms of diagnostic to prevent the falls of older people. Key words: geriatrics, aging process, fall