Study: Elderly Women With Arthritis at Greater Risk of Falls

Elderly women with arthritis and other chronic conditions are at greater risk of suffering a fall, according to a study reported in the September 27 issue of the British Medical Journal.

Researchers at the University of Bristol asked 4,050 women between the ages of 60 and 79 years if they had fallen in the last 12 months, how many times and if they had received medical attention because of their falls. Nearly three quarters of the women had at least one chronic disease.

The risk of falling associated with having any chronic disease was 32 percent. But nearly 60 percent of the participants with arthritis had suffered at least one fall.

According to the researchers, previous studies have focused more on drug use than chronic diseases as a factor in causing falls. As a result, drugs have been the main focus of interventions to prevent falls.

Although over 70 percent of the women involved in the study were taking at least one drug, the researchers found no association between falling and the use of drugs. Only sedatives and anti-depressants were associated with an increased risk of falling, and even then only increased the risk by 2 to 5 percent.

The researchers concluded that targeting prevention and control of chronic diseases rather than focusing on the number of drugs taken by seniors may be a more useful strategy for preventing falls.

Other sources: British Medical Journal, 2003;327:712-715