Protective or harmful? A qualitative exploration of older people's perceptions of worries about falling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

worries about falling are common in older people. It has been suggested that these worries can reduce balance safety by acting as a distracting dual-task. However, it is also possible that worries may serve a protective purpose. The present work adopted a qualitative approach to conduct an in-depth exploration of older people's experiences of worries about falling.

Methods

semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 community-dwelling older people (mean age = 79 years; males = 5/17) who reported experiencing worries about falling. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results

experiencing a fall-or otherwise recognising one's balance limitations-brought the physical realities of participants' ageing bodies to the forefront of their

SUBMITTER: Ellmers TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8972997 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature