Assessment of risk of falling in community-dwelling elderly by using the

Abstract

Falls are a cause of health problem and lead to disability or death in the elderly. Prevention of falls, especially in the high risk group, is thus important with the determination of overall risk factors. The Thai Fall Risk Assessment Tool (Thai FRAT) is a test for evaluating the risk of falls by considering both intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors. Meanwhile the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) emphasizes only the intrinsic factors. This study aimed to examine the agreement of the Thai FRAT and the BBS on identifying the risk of falls in 47 community-dwelling elderly (18 men and 29 women, mean age 76.3 ± 4.2 years) of Samliam Community, Khon Kaen Province. The agreement of the Thai FRAT and the BBS was analyzed by Kappa statistic. The result showed that the agreement of the Thai FRAT and the BBS on identifying the elderly at risk for falling was fair (K = 0.33, P = 0.009). This finding may indicate that physical therapists should apply the Thai FRAT and the BBS for assessing risk of falls of the elderly in community to obtain both intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors.