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

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

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.

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).

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