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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

Yujian Song1, Yujiao Deng2, Jianhua Li3, Benchuan Hao3, Yulun Cai3, Jianqiao Chen3, Haiyan Shi4, Weihao Xu5
  • 1Graduate School of Medical School of Chinese PLA, Beijing 100853, China
  • 2Department of Ultrasound, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
  • 3Department of Geriatric Cardiology, The Second Medical Center & National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
  • 4Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Medical Center & National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
  • 5Haikou Cadre's Sanitarium of Hainan Military Region, Haikou 570203, China
* Equal contribution
Received: February 11, 2021Accepted: May 31, 2021Published: June 23, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203174

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.