2016 Articles

Social support and older adult falls

Durbin, Laura; Kharrazi, Rebekah J.; Graber, Rebecca; Mielenz, Thelma J.

Background
Social support has been shown to be associated with various positive health outcomes among older adults but has not been previously examined in relation to falls, which are a serious health concern among older adults.


Findings
This study (n = 1000) uses multivariable logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between social contact and perceived availability of social support and falls among older adults. When adjusting for demographic and other covariates neither relationship was significant.


Conclusions
This study does not find evidence to suggest that social support could be a prevention measure for falls. Future research on this topic should focus on careful definition and precise measurement of the social support construct.