Association between Fear of Falling (FOF) and all-cause mortality

Objective: To longitudinally investigate the effect of fear of falling on all-cause mortality.

Methods: Data from the KLoSA from 2006 to 2016 was used and 10,219 middle aged and older adults were included for analysis. The association between fear of falling and all-cause mortality was analyzed by Cox proportional hazard model with controlling for demographic characteristics, number of chronic conditions, depressive symptoms and fall experience.

Results: Of the 10,219 individuals at baseline 2006, those with fall experience for 2 years were 411 participants (4.2 %) and about 18.5 % of these participants (n: 76) died. In terms of FOF, 14.83 % of participants (1,515/10,219) reported serious fear for falling. Adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality shows those who are very afraid of falling had a significantly increased risk of mortality compared with those without a FOF (HR 1.861, 95 % CI 1.589-2.179, P-value:.0001).

Conclusion: This study shows a statistically significant association between fear of falling and all-cause mortality in a Korean middle aged and aged population.