Prevalence and fall risk in mild cognitive impairment and dementia at outpatient clinics, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Abstract

Background : The number of patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia is rising and these patients have fall risk approximately 2 times higher than normal elderly. Fall increases morbidity and burden of care. Currently, there is no study concerning fear of falling among patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia in Thailand.

Objectives : To explore the rate of the fear of falling, risk of fall and prevalence of fall in patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia at outpatient clinics, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Methods : The subjects were 95 outpatients with at least 50 years old diagnosed by psychiatrists or neurologists with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. The tools were composed of the demographic and clinical data questionnaire, Montreal Cognitive Assessment scale (MoCA), Thai Mental State Examination (TMSE), Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI - Q), Fall Efficacy Scale - International (Thai FES - I), Time up and go test (TUG), Berg balance test (BBT). SPSS version 22 were used to perform for the descriptive statistics and univariated analysis was done for associated factors and logistic regression analysis was done for predictive factors of all main outcome.

Results : The prevalence of history of fall was 44.2 % and 44.2 % of the subjects had fear of falling. Dementia was 48.9 % higher than mild cognitive impairment was 39.6 %. The risk of fall determined by Time up and go test and Berg balance test were 7.4 % and 3.2 %, respectively. The predictive factors for fear of falling were agitation and female gender. The factors that predicted the risk of fall were aged more than 75 years old, female gender and dementia diagnosis.

Conclusion : In this study, The prevalence of history of fall was 44.2 %. this result of our study is more than Thai elderly in community. fear of fall and fall risk were low. However, the screening test are still helpful to reduce incidence of fall and increase quality of life of the patients.