Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the major circumstances of fall incidence in home-dwelling stroke patients. One hundred seventy home-dwelling stroke patients were recruited for this study. We administered 3 questionnaires to the participants. The questionnaire contained information about (1) fall incidence in the last twelve months, (2) personal characteristics, and (3) individual functional ability as measured by the Barthel index score. Eighty-nine of the patients (52.4%) suffered a fall. There were no significant differences between fallers and non-fallers in personal characteristics. Most falls occurred while walking on a flat floor (51.9%) or during a change of posture from sitting to standing on the floor (19.3%). Moreover, the rate of injury caused by falls in these two major activities was very high. In addition, there was a significant relationship between activities when falls occurred and causes of falls. Further studies that focus on the mechanisms leading to falls in these circumstances are needed to improve the major causes of falls in these activities.
