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Perception of postural limits and falls in community-dwelling elderly people

An important prerequisite in performing diverse movements safely and without falling in daily life is postural limits. Postural limits decreases with age. The accurate perception of postural limits is interpreted as a potential safety factor to prevent the planning of movements that create loss of balance. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between perception of postural limits and falls in 163 community-dwelling elderly people. The experimental protocol required subjects first to estimate the maximum-distance forward reach and then execute that. The error in estimated reach distance(ED) was defined as the difference between actual and estimated forward reaches, with positive values of error representing underestimates and negative value representing overestimates. The ED was interpreted to reflect perception of postural limits. Other assessments included incidence of falls in the previous year, Functional Reach Test (FRT), Falls Efficacy scale (FES). Then we explored whether ED, FRT, and FES are associated with falls in older adults. The mean value of ED in multiple-fallers was negative and significantly smaller than that in non-fallers. In logistic regression analysis, ED and FES were detected as risk factors for multiple falls. The results suggested that perception of postural limits was one of the important risk factors for falls in community-dwelling elderly people.