Reviewing the static and dynamic balance in predicting the risk of falls in elderly people in Tehran

Imbalance is the most important cause of falls, and it is one of the most common problems in aging. Falling can cause physical, emotional and financial effects in the elderly. This study aimed to assess the static and dynamic balance to predict the risk of falls in elderly people with the history of falls. This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. Through a census sampling method, 160 elderly individuals (130 females, 30 males) aged 60 years and over, living in Kamrani Nursing Home of Tehran were participated in the study. After obtaining informed consent, demographic information, timed ‘get up and go’ test (TUG) and Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment (POAM) tests were used to assess the mobility problems in elderly people. Descriptive statistics, Man-Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis, and Pearson correlation, were used for data analysis. Normality of the data were assessed by using Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test. From 160 elderly people participated in the study, the majority were females (81.2%). Mean ± SD of age was 67.63±9.07. Mean ± SD of TUG and POAM tests were 20.58±7.1 and 18.41±3.78, respectively. According to POAM test, 58.8% of the elderly people were at high risk of falls. Also, the majority of subjects (55.9%) attained a record of more than 20 seconds in TUG test that shows a prone to a high risk of falling. According to this study, the majority of elderly subjects were prone to the risk of falling.