Associations of sleep quality and self-behavior with fall risk among community oldest-old people in Tangshan city

  Objective  To examine fall risk and to analyze correlations between fall risk and sleep quality and self-behavior among community dwelling oldest-old people in Tangshan city.

  Methods  We carried out a household survey between July 2016 and January 2017 among 3 448 residents aged ≥ 75 years recruited from communities in Tangshan city of Hebei province with stratified random cluster sampling. A questionnaire on general information, Falls Risk for Older People in the Community Screening Tool (FROP-Com), and Pittsburgh Sleep Index (PSQI) were used in the survey.

  Results  Among all the participants, 1 097 (31.82%) reported falling during previous one year and 824 (23.90%), 194 (5.63%), and 79 (2.29%) reported one, two, and three times of falling within past one year, respectively. Of the participants with falling in past one year, 25.25% and 7.20% had moderate and severe injuries with medical treatments. The results of multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that age, marital status, alcohol consumption, exercise, sleep quality, nocturnal awakening or early awakening, use of hypnotic agents, and difficult sleep due to pain were influencing factors of falling among the participants.

  Conclusion  The incidence of fall is high and falling-related injuries are prevalent among urban community-dwelling oldest-old people in Tangshan city; the study results indicate that improving sleep quality and promoting good self-behavior are important for reducing fall incidence among the population.