A Prospective Study of Back Pain and Risk of Falls Among Older Community-dwelling Women.

Marshall LM, Litwack-Harrison S, Cawthon PM, Kado DM, Deyo RA, Makris UE, Carlson HL, Nevitt MC, Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) Research Group. A Prospective Study of Back Pain and Risk of Falls Among Older Community-dwelling Women. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences. 2016 Sep 1; 71(9):1177-83.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• CDA 14-425 – Improving Outcomes for Older Veterans with Chronic Back Pain and Depression

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Back pain and falls are common health conditions among older U.S. women. The extent to which back pain is an independent risk factor for falls has not been established. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study among 6,841 community-dwelling U.S. women at least 65 years of age from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF). Baseline questionnaires inquired about any back pain, pain severity, and frequency in the past year. During 1 year of follow-up, falls were summed from self-reports obtained every 4 months. Two outcomes were studied: recurrent falls ( 2 falls) and any fall ( 1 fall). Associations of back pain and each fall outcome were estimated with risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from multivariable log-binomial regression. Adjustments were made for age, education, smoking status, fainting history, hip pain, stroke history, vertebral fracture, and Geriatric Depression Scale. RESULTS: Most (61%) women reported any back pain. During follow-up, 10% had recurrent falls and 26% fell at least once. Any back pain relative to no back pain was associated with a 50% increased risk of recurrent falls (multivariable RR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.3, 1.8). Multivariable RRs for recurrent falls were significantly elevated for all back pain symptoms, ranging from 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.8) for mild back pain to 1.8 (95% CI: 1.4, 2.3) for activity-limiting back pain. RRs of any fall were also significantly increased albeit smaller than those for recurrent falls. CONCLUSIONS: Older community-dwelling women with a recent history of back pain are at increased risk for falls.