Abstract
This study was performed to clarify relationships between accidental falls in the elderly and physical and psychological conditions and environmental factors in elderly people's daily life. The subjects were 316 healthy elderly individuals living at home (65-89 years old, 154 males, 162 females), who were examined by an interview and physical measurements. 1) The 14 physical measurements showed significant differences between males and females in physical functions such as height and visual acuity. 2) The total number of subjects who had experienced falling was 100 (26 males and 74 females) among all the subjects, with a significant difference between the incidences in females and males (p<0.01). In the comparisons of the physical functions between people who had falls and those who did not, males showed significant differences in body weight and muscular power, whereas females showed significant difference in the sense of body balance. In both sexes, people who had falls had inferior physical functions than those who did not. 3) Significant correlative relations were found among answers to the following questions (contingency table analyses). Males tended to fall when excited and females when depressed. Concerning knowledge of their own experiences of falling (questions "fell also in their youth", "fell more frequently than other people" and "fell often"), individuals who answered that they often fell appeared to have more complaints related to physical and psychological conditions in their daily life. Males reported that they suffered severe injury when they actually fell, while females only mild injury.
Accordingly, falls in the elderly were considered due to a combination of the above physical and psychological factors and sex difference. Caring attention should be paid not only to the weakened or deteriorated physical functions but more seriously to environmental and psychological factors.
