Deans' stroke musings: Examining the Role of Physical Function on Future Fall Likelihood in Older Adults With a Fear of Falling, With and Without Activity Restriction

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Friday, May 12, 2023

Examining the Role of Physical Function on Future Fall Likelihood in Older Adults With a Fear of Falling, With and Without Activity Restriction

My therapists never challenged my balance so I could practice what needed to be done to prevent falling. I don't fear falling, I've fallen hundreds of times. My response to my doctor's concerns;

'Do you fall?' Asked my doctor.

The latest here:

Examining the Role of Physical Function on Future Fall Likelihood in Older Adults With a Fear of Falling, With and Without Activity Restriction

Alexander J. Garbin, PT, DPT, PhD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4261-3417 alexander.garbin@cuanschutz.edu and Beth E. Fisher, PT, PhD, FAPTAView all authors and affiliations

OnlineFirst

https://doi.org/10.1177/08982643231170308

Objectives

Assess the influence of physical function on balance and future falls in older adults with fear of falling (FOF) and whether activity restriction modifies the contribution to falls.

Methods: Analyses utilized data from Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (n = 680) and National Health and Aging Trends Study (n = 4376) community-dwelling older adults. The role of physical function was examined by comparing balance performance and future fall odds before/after controlling for function in older adults with/without FOF. Fall likelihood analyses were repeated with FOF stratified by activity restriction.

Results: When controlling for physical function, differences in balance and fall odds secondary to FOF/activity restricting FOF reduced but remained significant. Fall odds secondary to non-activity restricting FOF only slightly decreased.

Discussion: Physical function contributes to balance and falls in older adults with FOF, more so in those restricting activity. Reduced balance and increased fall risk persists independent of function suggesting additional contributing factors.