[Falls requiring use of health services by the older adults: an analysis of the Brazilian National Health Survey, 2013].

The aim was to analyze the prevalence of falls requiring visits to health services and associated sociodemographic factors in the elderly in the Brazilian National Health Survey (PNS), 2013. This was a cross-sectional population-based study using data on 23,815 elderly Brazilians from the PNS 2013 survey. The outcome variable was falls requiring use of a health service. Crude and adjusted analyses were performed with robust Poisson regression, with prevalence ratio as the measure of effect and the respective 95% confidence interval (95%CI). The stepwise-forward method was used for inclusion of the variables in the multivariate model. The prevalence of falls with the need to seek health services was 7.8% (95%CI: 7.3-8.4). The administrative region with the lowest occurrence of falls was the Southeast (7.3%), and Rondônia was the state with the lowest prevalence (5.3%). In the multivariate analysis, falls were associated with age 75 years or older, female sex, and divorced or separated marital status. The nationally representative data produced by the PNS survey can enhance measures to prevent falls throughout Brazil.