The role of self-efficacy on fear of falls and fall among elderly community dwellers in Shahroud, Iran

Fear of fall is well-known risk factor for falls among senior citizens. However, the mechanism by which fear of falls can facilitate falls is not clear. This study hypothesized that falls self-efficacy can play a role in relationship between fear of falls and falls. There has been rapidly growing literature on falls among senior citizens, and however, the role of falls selfefficacy on falls among older adults has not been well-investigated. The aim of this study was to identify the mediation role of self-efficacy between fear of falls and falls among the elderly people living in community.
Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, researchers used the secondary data of a clinical trial in 2013. Subjects of the study were 1312 senior citizens living in Shahroud; Semnan province, Iran, was selected by a simple random method using online software of random number generator based on their health file numbers in district health centers. Subjects of the study were assessed for fear of falls (by Falls Efficacy Scale), falls self-efficacy (by Activity-specific Balance Confidence Scale) and history of falls.
This study indicated that fall is a frequent event among senior citizens. One-third of elderly people had the experience of falls, annually. Moreover, this study showed that high levels of fear of falling were significantly related to low falls self-efficacy (P Results of this study provide evidence that fear is related to falls. Moreover, it can be concluded that falls self-efficacy plays a mediation role on relationship between fear of falls and falls. Hence, it is recommended that any falls prevention should consider psychological covariates of falls especially subjects’ self-efficacy to reduce falls, alongside other risk factors and covariates of falls.