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Examination of Risk Factors Associated With Falls and Injurious Falls in People With Multiple Sclerosis: An Updated
Libak Abou1, Chloe McCloskey2, Cory Wernimont1
1Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Objective:
To provide an update on risk factors associated with falls and injurious falls among people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) in the United States.
Design:
Nationwide cross-sectional web-based survey.
Setting:
Community setting.
Participants:
Adult PwMS (n=965).
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Participants completed self-report surveys of demographics, clinical data, concerns about falling, occurrence of falls, factors associated with falls, and injurious falls in the past 6 months. Participants also completed Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures of depression, pain interference, and physical function, and the Fatigue Severity Scale.
Results:
The most common self-reported factors associated with falls included personal factors such as poor balance (75%), muscle weakness (54%), and/or fatigue (35%), environmental factors such as general surface conditions (37%) and/or distraction (15%), and activities-related factors such as urgency to complete a task (35%) and/or multitasking (27%). Logistic regression analyses indicated that higher fatigue severity (OR=1.19, P<.01) and higher pain interference (OR=1.02, P<.01) were associated with higher odds of experiencing at least 1 fall. Any level of concern, even minimal concern about falling was also significantly associated with a higher odd of experiencing at least 1 fall (ORs range 2.78 - 3.95, all P<.01). Fair to very high concerns about falling compared with no concern about falling (ORs range=5.17 - 10.26, all P<.05) was significantly associated with higher odds of sustaining an injurious fall.
Conclusions:
Findings suggest falls prevention approaches in PwMS should be multifactorial and include personal, environmental, and activities-related factors. Particular attention on fatigue, pain, and concern about falling may be needed to reduce incidence of falls and injurious falls in this population.
