Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes is considered as one of the most common chronic diseases. Since diabetes complications can lead to falls in the elderly and according to the fact that the risks associated with falling are multifactorial, the aim of this study was to explore the association between activity of daily living (ADL) and falling in older people with diabetes admitted to the selected hospitals of tehran university of medical sciences.

Methods: A case–control study was performed. The sample included 160 persons 60 years or older who suffering from type 2 diabetes. 80 participants with a history of falling and 80 participants without any history of falling during last year were matched by age and gender the associations of the ADL stage with a history of falling within the past year (none, once or multiple times) were explored using demographic and ADL questionnaire. Data analyse was performed through using descriptive statistics and independent t-test, χ² and logistic regression.

Results: Both groups of participants (83.8% of patients with and 85% of patients without a history of falling) had a moderate limitation in ADL. Independent t-tests and χ² analysis showed that there is not any significant correlation (P<0.938) between falling and ADL.

Conclusions: This study showed that the level of ADL in diabetic elderly could not cause the fall alone. It seems that limitation of ADL, along with other fall risk factors such as fecal incontinence and hearing impairment cause falling in older patients suffered from diabetes type 2. Therefore, preventing falling must be considered in this group with pay attentions the set of risk factors together.