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Affiliation
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Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Falls and related injuries are important public health concerns yet underappreciated in early aging. This study examined the association of peripheral nerve impairment (PNI) with fall outcomes in early old aged women (60-72 years).
METHODS: Women (n=1,725; mean age 65.1 ± 2.7 years) from the longitudinal cohort Study of Women's Health Across the Nation completed a PNI questionnaire on presence, frequency, and severity of symptoms, and 10g and 1.4g monofilament testing in 2016-17. PNI was defined as ≥4 self-reported symptoms or monofilament insensitivity. Recurrent falls (≥2) and recurrent fall injuries (≥2 falls with ≥1 injury) in the previous 12 months were assessed via questionnaire. Poisson regression was used to generate risk ratios (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals for the fall outcomes (CI), adjusting for covariates.
RESULTS: Approximately 12.3% of participants reported ≥2 falls, 7.6% reported recurrent falls with injury, and 15.8% reported ≥4 PNI symptoms. Women with recurrent falls were more likely to report ≥4 PNI symptoms compared to women without recurrent falls (32.1% vs. 13.5%; p<0.001). One-quarter (25.6%) of participants had ≥4 PNI symptoms or monofilament insensitivity; after adjusting for covariates, women with either symptoms or insensitivity were more likely to report recurrent falls compared to women with neither (RR=1.64; 95% CI:1.24, 2.17).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that PNI may identify those at high risk for falls, particularly among women during early late life. Neuropathy screening instruments such as symptom questionnaires or monofilament testing are easy to implement and may have utility for fall risk assessment.
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Language: en |