Abstract
The aim of this study was to reveal useful tools for fall tendencies. We prospectively enrolled 123 ambulatory hemodialysis patients, and the primary outcome measure was the incidence of falls during a 1-year follow-up period. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to assess the contribution of variables, which were physical performance (short physical performance battery, SPPB), muscle strength, muscle mass, nutritional status, and intra-dialytic hypotension (IDH), in the incidence of falls. Thirty-eight patients (31%) fell during the follow-up period. In multivariable analysis, IDH was an independent risk factor (hazard ratio (HR) =2.66, log-rank p=0.002). In addition, the HR for falls in patients with less than 7 points on SPPB was 2.41 (95% confidence interval of 1.13−5.35, log-rank p=0.02) compared with more than 11 points as reference. Determining the presence of IDH and low-level physical function extremely useful to predict falls in hemodialysis patients.
