@article{ref1,
title="Association between vision-specific quality of life and falls in community-dwelling older adults: LOHAS",
journal="PLoS one",
year="2018",
author="Niihata, Kakuya and Fukuma, Shingo and Hiratsuka, Yoshimune and Ono, Koichi and Yamada, Masakazu and Sekiguchi, Miho and Otani, Koji and Kikuchi, Shinichi and Konno, Shinichi and Fukuhara, Shunichi",
volume="13",
number="4",
pages="e0195806-e0195806",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Falls and fall-related fractures are a major public health problem among the older adults. Although objective measures of poor vision have been reported to be associated with falls, the association of self-reported visual function and vision-specific quality of life (QOL) with falls has been inconsistent across several studies. We investigated the association of self-reported visual function and vision specific QOL with falls in community-dwelling older adults. <br><br>METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using the baseline data from participants of the Locomotive Syndrome and Health Outcome in Aizu Cohort Study (LOHAS), which is an ongoing population-based cohort study to evaluate the association of physical dysfunction with the clinical outcomes in community-dwelling people. In the present study, the participants aged over 65 years in 2010 were eligible. The exposure variable was the composite score of the VFQ-J11, which was newly developed using item response theory to evaluate vision specific QOL, and the self-reported outcomes were any fall and frequent falls (≥2) over a 1-month period. We estimated odds ratios using separate logistic regression models adjusted for relevant confounding factors. <br><br>RESULTS: Among 1624 participants, the median (interquartile range) composite score of VFQ-J11 was 86.8 (76.0-95.9). Any fall and frequent falls were reported by 13.9% and 5.4% of participants, respectively. The composite score of the VFQ-J11 was significantly associated with both frequent falls (adjusted ORs per 10 points, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.68-0.93) and any fall (adjusted ORs per 10 points, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.76-0.94). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: We found that the composite score of the VFQ-J11 was associated with falls in community-dwelling older adults. Detecting individuals with visual impairments associated with falls using the VFQ-J11 and improvement in the score by interventions could prevent falls. We may consider adding self-reported visual function and vision-specific QOL to conventional risk factors for fall among older adults.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1932-6203",
doi="10.1371/journal.pone.0195806",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195806"
}