A Meta-Analysis of Fall Risk in Older Adults With Alzheimer's Disease.
Sara Mahmoudzadeh Khalili, Caroline Simpkins, Feng Yang
PMID 38378160WHAT IT FOUND
Across studies, 44.27% of older adults with Alzheimer's disease fell at least once a year, and 42.08% of those fallers fell again.
Use this high fall risk to guide tailored fall-risk assessment and prevention planning.
Key findings
01In 19 studies including 4,022 people with Alzheimer's disease, the pooled annual fall prevalence was 44.27%.
02Among people with Alzheimer's disease who fell over 12 months, 42.08% were recurrent fallers.
03The pooled yearly average number of falls was 1.30 falls/person.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a meta-analysis of observational and pre-intervention fall data, not a trial of a fall-prevention treatment. The search was limited to English-language peer-reviewed articles, so relevant studies may have been missed. Included studies were from community, nursing home, and Alzheimer's care settings, and living conditions were not reported for some studies. Fall definitions varied: 14 studies used a standard fall definition and 17 did not provide one. Tracking durations and methods varied, including retrospective recall and prospective diaries or calls, which can affect accuracy. The included studies were rated fair to good, with mean PEDro scores of 4.44 and mean STROBE scores of 18.14. The analysis did not examine whether gender, race, ethnicity, age, or dementia severity changed fall risk. People with Alzheimer's disease younger than 65 were excluded. The injured faller rate was based on only two studies, one over 12 months and one over 4 months.
Declared interests
No conflict of interest was reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat 44.27% as a universal fall risk for every patient with Alzheimer's disease. The estimate comes from studies with different settings, fall definitions, and tracking periods, and it does not show that any treatment works.