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FALLS AMONG OLDER ADULTS:
CHARACTERISTICS OF FALLERS, PREDICTORS OF FALLS, AND THE
IMPACT OF FALLS ON HEALTH CARE AND LONG-TERM CARE
UTILIZATION
by
In Hee Choi
________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(GERONTOLOGY)
December 2008
Copyright 2008 In Hee Choi
Object Description
| Title | Falls among older adults: characteristics of fallers, predictors of falls, and the impact of falls on health care and long-term care utilization |
| Author | Choi, In Hee |
| Author email | inhchoi@usc.edu; inhchoi@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Gerontology |
| School | Leonard Davis School of Gerontology |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-04-30 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-09-11 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Pynoos, Jon |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Crimmins, Eileen M Biblarz, Timothy J. |
| Abstract | This dissertation profiles the characteristics of community-dwelling older adults who fall (hereafter, fallers); investigates predictors of falls by frequency of falls and by race/ethnicity; and examines the extent to which fallers talk about their falls with health care professionals, and the consequences of falls on subsequent health care and long-term care (LTC) utilization.; By using nationally representative samples of the U.S. population, the results demonstrate that fallers were more likely to be older, be female, be non-Hispanic White, live alone, have poorer health characteristics, have poorer socioeconomic characteristics, and have more supportive features at home compared to their nonfaller counterparts. With respect to the predictors of falls, the findings show that being female, having functional limitations, and having certain diseases/chronic conditions were significant predictors of falls for both one-time and multiple-time fallers. In addition, the study found that being non-Hispanic African American or Hispanic decreased the likelihood of experiencing a fall, and the relative magnitude of predictors of a fall varied slightly across racial/ethnic groups.; With respect to the extent to which fallers talk about their falls with health care providers, less than half of the fallers in this study talked about them with health care providers, and those who did were more likely to be older, to be female, to be unmarried, to live in a metropolitan area, to have poorer health, and to have higher numbers of falls and injurious falls compared to those who did not talk about their falls. In terms of the consequences of falls on health care and LTC utilization, falls in 2004 were significantly associated with higher health care and LTC utilization in 2004. However, falls in 2002 were generally not associated with service utilization in 2004, whereas injurious falls in 2002 had a significant positive association with higher number of physician visits in 2004.; Given that falls among older adults are sentinel events, and in light of the significant impact falls have on health care and LTC utilization, effective and targeted fall prevention programs are needed to prevent and reduce falls among older adults by ameliorating and modifying risk factors for falls. |
| Keyword | fall; older adults; fall prevention |
| Coverage date | 2002/2004 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1594 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Choi, In Hee |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Choi-2331 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume44/etd-Choi-2331.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | FALLS AMONG OLDER ADULTS: CHARACTERISTICS OF FALLERS, PREDICTORS OF FALLS, AND THE IMPACT OF FALLS ON HEALTH CARE AND LONG-TERM CARE UTILIZATION by In Hee Choi ________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (GERONTOLOGY) December 2008 Copyright 2008 In Hee Choi |
