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Positive components of mental health provide significant protection against likelihood of falling in older women over a 13-year period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

Richard A. Burns ,
Julie Byles ,
Paul Mitchell  and
Kaarin J. Anstey
Richard A. Burns*
Affiliation:
Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Julie Byles
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Paul Mitchell
Affiliation:
Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Millennium Institute and Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Kaarin J. Anstey
Affiliation:
Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Richard A. Burns, Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia. Phone: +61 02 6125 3132; Fax: +61 2 6125 0733. Email: Richard.Burns@anu.edu.au.
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Abstract

Background: In late life, falls are associated with disability, increased health service utilization and mortality. Physical and psychological risk factors of falls include falls history, grip strength, sedative use, stroke, cognitive impairment, and mental ill-health. Less understood is the role of positive psychological well-being components. This study investigated the protective effect of vitality on the likelihood of falls in comparison to mental and physical health.

Methods: Female participants were drawn from the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) harmonization project. Participants (n = 11,340) were aged 55–95 years (Mean = 73.68; SD = 4.31) at baseline and observed on up to four occasions for up to 13 years (Mean = 5.30; SD = 2.53).

Results: A series of random intercept logistic regression models consistently identified vitality's protective effects on falls as a stronger effect in the reduction of the likelihood of falls than the effect of mental health. Vitality is a significant predictor of falls likelihood even after adjusting for physical health, although the size of effect is substantially explained by its covariance with mental and physical heath.

Conclusions: Vitality has significant protective effects on the likelihood of falls. In comparison with mental health, vitality reported much stronger protective effects on the likelihood to fall in comparison with the risk associated with poor mental health in a large sample of older female adults. Both physical health and mental health account for much of the variance in vitality, but vitality still reports a protective effect on the likelihood of falls.

Keywords

longitudinal studiesresearch design and methodologydepression
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 24 , Issue 9 , September 2012 , pp. 1419 - 1428
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2012

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