Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 12 pp 16527—16540
Associations of falls and severe falls with blood pressure and frailty among Chinese community-dwelling oldest olds: The Chinese Longitudinal Health and Longevity Study
- 1 Graduate School of Medical School of Chinese PLA, Beijing 100853, China
- 2 Department of Ultrasound, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
- 3 Department of Geriatric Cardiology, The Second Medical Center & National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
- 4 Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Medical Center & National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
- 5 Haikou Cadre's Sanitarium of Hainan Military Region, Haikou 570203, China
Received: February 11, 2021 Accepted: May 31, 2021 Published: June 23, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203174How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Song et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction: Falls are a leading cause of death among Chinese oldest olds. However, studies on Chinese community-dwelling older adults are lacking. We aimed to identify the associations of falls and severe falls with blood pressure and frailty among Chinese community-dwelling oldest olds.
Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted with 6,595 community-dwelling oldest olds (aged ≥80 years) from 22 Chinese provinces from the Chinese Longitudinal Health and Longevity Study (CLHLS). Systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were measured twice at participants’ homes, and a 38-item frailty index was used to assess the frailty status of participants. Falls and severe falls were confirmed through face-to-face interviews. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the associations of BP and frailty with falls and severe falls.
Results: The mean participant age was 91.0 years, and 56.1% were female. In total, 24.2% participants had a history of fall and 8.3% had a history of severe falls. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for falls among the oldest old with SBP ≥140 mm Hg compared to those with an SBP of 120–129 mm Hg was 1.20 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.44). The adjusted OR for falls among frail participants compared to robust participants was 1.39 (95% CI, 1.02–1.89). DBP and pre-frailty were not associated with falls after multivariate adjustment. SBP, DBP, and frailty status were not associated with severe falls after multivariate adjustment.
Conclusions: SBP and frailty but not DBP and pre-frailty are associated with increased odds of falls among Chinese community-dwelling oldest olds.