Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: With aging, muscles strength decrease. Balance disorder is one of the common aging problems which can cause falls and serious injuries. The purpose of this study was to present a model along with the determinants of balance status in the elderly.
Methods: This cross-sectional study is part of a cohort study, "investigation of the health status of elderly in Amirkola City", which was performed on 1616 old people aged≥ 60 years, (response rate 72 %). The baseline data of this study were collected in the Center for Social Determinants of Health (SDH) Research Centre of the Babol University of Medical Sciences during March 2011 to July 2012. We considered the age, sex, physical activity, quadriceps muscle strength, daily activity, serum level of vitamin D, BMI, number of comorbidities and orthostatic hypotension as independent variables. Using the results of Berg balance test, the balance status of participants (as dependent variable) was categorized into two groups: score between 41-56 as normal (low risk of fall) and score < 41 as balance disorder (medium or high risk of fall). Then, the association of independent variables with balance status were evaluated in the logistic regression model.
Results: The mean and standard deviation of participants' age was 69.37±7.6 years, 54.7% of them were men and 7.5% of them had balance disorder. The odds ratio of medium or high falls in women to men, the number of comorbidities, having strong quadriceps to weak muscles, seniors aged 80 years and over, to 60-69, seniors with high physical activity to low physical activity, daily activities were (OR=2.1, 95%CI: 1.0-4.1), (OR=1.7, 95%CI: 1.0-2.9), (OR=0.05, 95%CI: 0.0-0.4), (OR=5.0, 95%CI: 2.3-10.6), (OR=0.3, 95%CI: 0.1-0.6), (OR=14.4, 95%CI: 3.4-60.4), respectively and statistically significant. The odds ratio of fall for vitamin D, orthostatic blood pressure and BMI variables did not show any statistically significant differences. The results of the analysis showed that the balance in all age groups in men was better than women.
Conclusion: Weak quadriceps, aging, being a woman and having comorbidities are the most important risk factors of balance disorder in the elderly.

Results: In the study of baseline variables in the elderly with and without pain with diabetes, it was found that women reported more pain with 54.4% than men with 45.6% that there is a significant difference between the two sexes (P=0.0001). Education level was also associated with having pain so that 67.8% of the elderly with having pain were illiterate and this relationship was significant (P=0.006). 82.5% of the elderly with higher physical activity had less pain than the elderly with less physical activity. This indicates the effect of physical activity in reducing pain and the observed relationship was significant (P=0.001). Triglyceride levels and history of underlying disease were lower in painless elderly (P=0.009 and P=0.002). Physical activity in the elderly without pain was higher than the elderly who had pain and this significant difference was reported (P=0.002).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate a high prevalence of chronic pain in the elderly in Amirkola. In the elderly without chronic pain, there were lower triglyceride levels, more physical activity and fewer underlying diseases. Attention to chronic pain features among elderly to identify vulnerable groups and providing better care can increase the quality of life in this group.