Circumstances and consequences of falls in elderly people with vestibular disorder

SummaryAimTo investigate the circumstances and consequences of falls in the chronically dizzy elderly and to correlate them with the number of falls (one/two and more).MethodTransversal descriptive analytic study with 64 patients aged 65 or over, with history of falls and diagnostic of chronic vestibular dysfunction. We performed a descriptive analysis and Qui-Square test (&#61537;<0.05).ResultsThe sample was constituted by a female majority (76.6%) with a mean age of 73.62±5.69 years. The vestibular examination showed peripheral vestibulopathy in 81.5% of the cases and the most prevalent diagnostic hypothesis were benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (43.8%) and metabolic inner ear disease (42.2%). Recurrent falls were seen in 35 elderly (53.1%). In relation to the last fall, 39.1% of the patients had fallen in their homes, 51.6% of them occurred during the morning, 51.6% with some propulsion mechanism, 53.1% when walking, 25.0% caused by dizziness and 23.4% by stumbling. Activity restriction was significantly greater in patients that have already had two and more falls, when compared with those who had fallen only once (p=0.031). We found a significant association between the number of falls and their causes (p