Vol.21 No.1

Original Article

Incidence of falls and fear of falling in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Authors

Kiyotaka Yamagiwa1 , Setsu Iijima2 , Takefumi Furuya1 , Tetsuo Ikai3 , Eisuke Inoue1 , Atsuo Taniguchi1 , Shigeki Momohara1 , Hisashi Yamanaka1

  • Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University
  • Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba
  • Department of Rehabilitation, Tokyo Women’s Medical University
Received:

9 June 2010

Accepted:

11 August 2010

Published online:

15 September 2010

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Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the incidence of falls and fear of falling by gender and age in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Among the Japanese patients who participated in a single-institute-based prospective observational cohort study of patients with RA, namely the Institute of Rheumatology Rheumatoid Arthritis, 765 men (median age 63 years) and 4,231 women (median age 60 years) with RA responded to questions related to falls. Eight percent of men and 11% of women reported one or more falls during the previous 6 months. At least one fall and multiple falls were significantly more frequent in men (p < 0.05) and in women (p < 0.001) with RA over age 65 and age 75 years, respectively, although there was no significant linear increase in risk with age. Sixteen percent of men and 22% of women reported fear of falling. More men over age 65 tended to report fear of falling than those under age 65 (p < 0.001), although the incidence of women with fear of falling increased with advancing age. Japanese patients with RA over age 65 and age 75 appeared to have a high risk of at least one fall and multiple falls, respectively.

Key words

Falls - Fear of falling - Incidence - Japanese - Rheumatoid arthritis