Relationships of Fall Risk With Frailty, Sarcopenia, and Balance Disturbances in Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Cognitive impairment is one of the main risk factors for falls, and hence it commonly coexists with balance issues. Frailty and sarcopenia are intertwined and prevalent in dementia, and are closely related to falls. We aimed to determine the relationships of the fall risk with balance disturbances, sarcopenia, and frailty in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).

METHODS

The study enrolled 56 patients with probable AD. A comprehensive geriatric assessment was performed, and muscle strength and mass, performance status, gait, and balance were evaluated. All parameters were compared between fallers and nonfallers with AD.

RESULTS

Fallers comprised 53.6% of the study population. The demographic features and AD stages did not differ between fallers and nonfallers. Fallers were more frail than nonfallers (<0.05). Frailty was found to be independently associated with fall history (odds ratio=2.15, 95% confidence interval=1.20-3.82, =0.031). We found that falls were not associated with AD stage, muscle mass and function, balance and geriatric syndromes except urinary incontinence in patients with AD (>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

We found that falls were not influenced by AD stage. Both physical and cumulative frailty were strongly associated with falls in patients with mild-to-moderate AD.