Department of Health Promotion, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Curr Aging Sci. 2023;16(3):211-218. doi: 10.2174/1874609816666230503094432.
The relationship between environmental diversity and the health status of older adults has been less considered in studies. This study seeks to investigate the causal relationship among the environment, falling, fear of falling, and the imbalance of older adults in southern Iran in 2021.
The investigation into the relationship between environmental pollution to the imbalance and fear of falling, especially in comparing urban and rural aging societies is the aim of current study.
In a cross-sectional study, 489 older samples from rural and urban areas were chosen randomly and their experience of falling, fear of falling, imbalance, and IADL were examined. The ordinal and nominal logistic regression and ANOVA were performed using IBM-SPSS.
With a mean age of 71.8 (SD = 8.3), older participants have long time chronic disease (69.6%) and falling experience twice a year (42.7%). The values of effect size indicated the high effectiveness of settlement in explaining IADL, health situation, experience and fear of falling, and imbalance (Eta squared > 30). The odds ratio for being in the urban settlement was 5.51, indicating the imbalance score increased by approximately 5.52 times.
Imbalance in older people leads to the fear and experience of falling. This imbalance is strongly influenced by the environment. Urban pollution can contribute to this problem. Future studies on aging need to focus on environmental pollution and diversity in the experience of falling and imbalance.
环境多样性与老年人健康状况之间的关系在研究中较少被考虑。本研究旨在探讨 2021 年伊朗南部环境、跌倒、跌倒恐惧和老年人平衡之间的因果关系。
本研究旨在调查环境污染物与平衡和跌倒恐惧之间的关系，特别是在比较城乡老龄化社会时。
采用横断面研究方法，随机抽取 489 名来自农村和城市地区的老年人样本，对其跌倒、跌倒恐惧、平衡和 IADL 进行了检查。采用 IBM-SPSS 进行有序和名义逻辑回归和方差分析。
平均年龄为 71.8（SD=8.3）岁，老年参与者患有长期慢性疾病（69.6%），每年跌倒两次（42.7%）。效应大小值表明，居住环境对 IADL、健康状况、跌倒经验和恐惧以及平衡的解释具有高度有效性（Eta 平方>30）。居住在城市环境的优势比为 5.51，表明平衡得分增加了约 5.52 倍。
老年人的平衡失调会导致跌倒恐惧和跌倒经验。这种平衡失调受环境的强烈影响，城市污染可能导致这一问题。未来关于老龄化的研究需要关注环境污染物以及跌倒和平衡失调方面的多样性。
