RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS OF FALL EVENTS AMONG OLDER MEN: AN ANALYSIS USING THE HEALTH AND RETIREMENT STUDY

摘要

Falls are a leading cause of nursing home admission, hospitalization, and disability among older adults; however, there is little research that examines risk and protective factors for falls among older men specifically. Our study is among the first to investigate fall events and racial and ethnic differences in fall risk among older men using a population-based sample. We analyzed data from 44269 community-dwelling men from the Health and Retirement Study aged 65 and older. We used multinomial logistic regression analyses to examine risk and protective factors for single and recurrent (2+) self-reported fall profiles at baseline (1998–2000) and longitudinally (1998–2014). We examined fall events by race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white, African American, and Hispanic/Latino), controlling for health and socio-demographic characteristics. In baseline analyses, African American men were less likely than non-Hispanic White men to experience single and multiple fall events, compared to no falls (RRR: 0.68, p=0.03), (RRR: 0.63, p=0.01) respectively. Longitudinally, African American and Hispanic men were less likely to experience multiple falls than their non-Hispanic White male counterparts. Divorced (RR:0.66, p=0.01) and widowed (RRR:0.72, p=0.00) men were also less likely to experience multiple falls than those who were married/partnered. Finally, consistent with other population-based studies, older age, ADL limitations, greater depressive symptoms, and presence of comorbidities were associated with a higher relative risk of single and/or recurrent falls across follow-up. This study has the potential to inform clinical practice and falls prevention programs through identification of risk and protective factors of single and recurrent falls among older, community dwelling men.