Falls are an important health concern among older adults due to age-related changes in the body. Having a medical history of chronic health condition may pose even higher risk of falling. Only few studies have assessed a number of chronic health conditions as risk factor for falls over a large nationally representative sample of US older adults. In this study, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2014 participants aged 65 years and older (n = 159,336) were evaluated. It was found that 29.7% (n=44,550) of the sample experienced at least one fall and 16.3% (n=20,444) experienced more than one fall in the past 12 months. According to the study findings, having a medical history of stroke, CKD, arthritis, depression, and diabetes independently predict the risk of first-time falling as well as the risk of recurrent falling in older adult population while controlling for other factors. On the other hand, having a medical history of the heart attack, angina, asthma, and COPD did not predict the risk of first-time falling, but did predict the risk of recurrent falling after experiencing the first fall in this population.

Concerns about sleep problems and falls in older adults are significant. This article reviews the association between sleep problems and falls in community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older. Multiple databases were searched from inception until 2015 using sleep, sleep disorders, and falls as keywords, limiting to studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals. After screening and assessing for eligibility, 18 articles were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings of an association between sleep problems and risk of falls are conflicting, but some specific sleep problems such as extremely short sleep duration, daytime sleepiness and naps appear to be significantly related to falls in older adults. Methodological limitations including variability in covariates included in the analyses and measurement of the exposure and outcome variables were identified. The results of this review identified the need to have comparable definitions, validated tools, and rigorous design of future studies.

Background. Very few studies have assessed the impact of poor sleep and sleep medication use on the risk of falls among community-dwelling older adults. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between sleep problems, sleep medication use, and falls in community-dwelling older adults.Methods. The study population comprised a nationally representative sample of noninstitutionalized older adults participating in the 2010 Health and Retirement Study. Proportion of adults reporting sleep problems, sleep medication use, and fall was calculated. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to examine the impact of sleep problems and sleep medication use on the risk of falls after controlling for covariates.Results. Among 9,843 community-dwelling older adults, 35.8% had reported a fall and 40.8% had reported sleep problems in the past two years. Sleep medication use was reported by 20.9% of the participants. Older adults who do have sleep problems and take sleep medications had a significant high risk of falls, compared to older adults who do not have sleep problems and do not take sleep medications. The other two groups also had significantly greater risk for falls.Conclusion. Sleep problems added to sleep medication use increase the risk of falls. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these observed findings.