Analysis of Incidence of Fear of Falling and its Relation between Balance Impairment and Functional mobility in Elderly Population

BACKGROUND: Ageing is a natural process, progression of age physical changes as well as mental changes occurring. It can lead to increase fear of falling, balance impairment, and mobility in community dwelling elderly populations. In this study mainly focus on incidence of fear of falling, and its correlation between Berg Balance Scale and Time Up Go scale. The sample consisted of 60 community dwelling elderly people of age between 65 years to 90 years this study is to determine a relationship among them. OBJECTIVES: To find out the correlation between fear of falling and balance impairment. To find out the correlation between fear of fall and functional mobility. METHODOLOGY: Ethics approval& participant consent was taken. study design was prospective cross section survey study. Subjects with age of 65 to 90 years with no history of Unstable cardiac disease coronary artery bypass or other cardiac surgery within the previous 6 months Respiratory conditions requiring oxygen supplementation. History of neurological disease with residual impairment History of fracture within the previous 6 months Severely limiting arthritis, joint instability, or back pain Total joint replacement within the previous 6 months. The fall efficacy questionnaire administration through Interview by Fall Efficacy scale, Functional assessment of balance, this scale is widely used in mainly to determine risk factors for loss of independence and fall in elderly. Mobility measure by Timed Up and Go test The (TUG) is clinical test to assess the ambulation or independence with high reliability due to its agreement in stop-watch duration versus rating scale. RESULT: The data was analyzed using Pearson co-efficient of Correlation to examine the relationship between FES, BBS and TUG test. The correlation co-efficient between fall efficacy and balance performance is 0.50, (p=0.00) and correlation coefficient between fall efficacy and TUG is 0.86, (p=0.00). The Persons correlation coefficient between the falls efficacy scale and the berg balance scale were - 0.50 which show high correlation between them with the significance of p=0.00. The correlation between the fall efficacy scale FES and time up and go test TUG was 0.86 With the significance of p=0.00. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that there is a significant association between the fall efficacy, the balance performance and the functional mobility in the elderly people.