Identifying profiles of people aged 65 and over who fall at home and associated falling-induced injuries: The French ChuPADom study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Falls in older people are a major public health problem due to associated morbidity and mortality. Their origin is most often multifactorial. OBJECTIVE, DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: The objective of the present study, called ChuPaDom, was to identify patterns or profiles of home fallers (HF) - understood here as people who fall in their place of residence - among a sample of persons aged 65 and over who were hospitalized after a fall, and to study their association with falling-induced injuries using data from the ChuPAdom study. METHODS: Multiple correspondence analysis and Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components were performed. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test for associations between HF profiles and injuries. RESULTS: The sample comprised 1467 patients (69% female, average age = 84.5 years). Five profiles were identified youngest seniors who took risks and fell from a raised height, youngest seniors with specific health problems who fell down a stairs, autonomous seniors who fell because they lost their balance or fell from their own height, dependent seniors who fell during low-intensity activities, very old seniors for whom missing data were frequent. Fractures were more frequent among the first profile than the last two profiles constituted with more dependent individuals (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These results highlight the heterogeneity of the circumstances in which older people fall. A greater understanding of these circumstances is needed to implement targeted prevention actions.