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Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015

BACKGROUND: A decline in mobility leads to fall occurrence and poorer performance in instrumental activities of daily living, which are widely proved to be associated with older adults' health-related quality of life. To inform potential predicaments faced by older adults at different age level...

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Autores principales: Kuo, Fang-Lin, Yen, Chia-Ming, Chen, Hung-Ju, Liao, Zih-Yong, Lee, Yen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9700940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36434511
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03613-3
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author Kuo, Fang-Lin
Yen, Chia-Ming
Chen, Hung-Ju
Liao, Zih-Yong
Lee, Yen
author_facet Kuo, Fang-Lin
Yen, Chia-Ming
Chen, Hung-Ju
Liao, Zih-Yong
Lee, Yen
author_sort Kuo, Fang-Lin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A decline in mobility leads to fall occurrence and poorer performance in instrumental activities of daily living, which are widely proved to be associated with older adults' health-related quality of life. To inform potential predicaments faced by older adults at different age levels, predictors of this mobility change and falls along with the ageing process need to be further evaluated. Therefore, this study examined the risk factors associated with the longitudinal course of mobility difficulty and falls among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in the Taiwanese community. METHODS: We evaluated data for the period between 2003 and 2015 from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging; the data cover 5267 community-based middle-aged and older adults with approximately 12 years of follow-up. In terms of mobility, the participants self-reported difficulties in mobility tasks (eg, ambulation) and whether they used a walking device. We employed linear mixed-effects regression models and cumulative logit models to examine whether personal characteristics are associated with mobility difficulty and falls. RESULTS: Mobility difficulty significantly increased over time for the participants aged ≥ 60 years. Perceived difficulties in standing, walking, squatting, and running became apparent from a younger age than limitations with hand function. The probability of repeated falls increased significantly with older age at 70 (p = .002), higher level of mobility difficulty (p < .0001), lower cognitive status (p = .001), living alone (p = .001), higher number of comorbid illnesses (p < .001), walking device use (p = .003), longer time in physical activities (p < .011), and elevated depressive symptoms (p = .006). Although walking aid use increased the probability of falls, individuals with mobility difficulty had a reduced probability of repeated falls when using a walking device (p = .02). CONCLUSION: Community-dwelling Taiwanese adults face an earlier mobility difficulty starting in 60 years old. Individuals with more leisure and physical activities in daily life were more likely to maintain mobility and walking safety. Long-term, regular, social, and physical activity could be a referral option for falls prevention program. The use of a walking device and safety precautions are warranted, particularly for individuals with walking difficulties. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03613-3.
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spelling pubmed-97009402022-11-27 Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015 Kuo, Fang-Lin Yen, Chia-Ming Chen, Hung-Ju Liao, Zih-Yong Lee, Yen BMC Geriatr Research BACKGROUND: A decline in mobility leads to fall occurrence and poorer performance in instrumental activities of daily living, which are widely proved to be associated with older adults' health-related quality of life. To inform potential predicaments faced by older adults at different age levels, predictors of this mobility change and falls along with the ageing process need to be further evaluated. Therefore, this study examined the risk factors associated with the longitudinal course of mobility difficulty and falls among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in the Taiwanese community. METHODS: We evaluated data for the period between 2003 and 2015 from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging; the data cover 5267 community-based middle-aged and older adults with approximately 12 years of follow-up. In terms of mobility, the participants self-reported difficulties in mobility tasks (eg, ambulation) and whether they used a walking device. We employed linear mixed-effects regression models and cumulative logit models to examine whether personal characteristics are associated with mobility difficulty and falls. RESULTS: Mobility difficulty significantly increased over time for the participants aged ≥ 60 years. Perceived difficulties in standing, walking, squatting, and running became apparent from a younger age than limitations with hand function. The probability of repeated falls increased significantly with older age at 70 (p = .002), higher level of mobility difficulty (p < .0001), lower cognitive status (p = .001), living alone (p = .001), higher number of comorbid illnesses (p < .001), walking device use (p = .003), longer time in physical activities (p < .011), and elevated depressive symptoms (p = .006). Although walking aid use increased the probability of falls, individuals with mobility difficulty had a reduced probability of repeated falls when using a walking device (p = .02). CONCLUSION: Community-dwelling Taiwanese adults face an earlier mobility difficulty starting in 60 years old. Individuals with more leisure and physical activities in daily life were more likely to maintain mobility and walking safety. Long-term, regular, social, and physical activity could be a referral option for falls prevention program. The use of a walking device and safety precautions are warranted, particularly for individuals with walking difficulties. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03613-3. BioMed Central 2022-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9700940/ /pubmed/36434511 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03613-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Kuo, Fang-Lin
Yen, Chia-Ming
Chen, Hung-Ju
Liao, Zih-Yong
Lee, Yen
Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title_full Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title_fullStr Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title_full_unstemmed Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title_short Trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in Taiwan from 2003 to 2015
title_sort trajectories of mobility difficulty and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 50 + in taiwan from 2003 to 2015
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9700940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36434511
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03613-3
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