Audiology patient fall statistics and risk factors compared to non-audiology patients

Abstract

Objective: To compare fall statistics (e.g. incidence, prevalence), fall risks, and characteristics of patients who seek hearing healthcare from an audiologist to individuals who have not sought such services. Design: Case-control study. Study sample: Two groups of community-dwelling older adult patients: 25 audiology patients aged 60 years or older (M age: 69.2 years, SD: 4.5, range: 61–77) and a control group (gender- and age-matched ±2 years) of 25 non-audiology patients (M age: 69.6, SD: 4.7, range: 60–77). Results: Annual incidence of falls (most recent 12 months) was higher in audiology patients (68.0%) than non-audiology patients (28.0%; p = .005). Audiology patients reported a higher incidence of multiple recent falls (p =.025) and more chronic health conditions (p = .028) than non-audiology patients. Conclusions: Significantly more audiology patients fall on an annual basis than non-audiology patients, suggesting that falls are a pervasive issue in general hearing clinics. Further action on the part of healthcare professionals providing audiologic services may be necessary to identify individuals at risk for falling.

Key Words:

• Audiology
• balance
• fall risk
• hearing
• older adults

Acknowledgements

A smaller sample of the data from this study was used for R. Criter’s dissertation entitled Identifying Fall Risk in the Audiology Clinic. The authors would like to acknowledge many individuals who supported this project, including R. Criter’s dissertation committee members: Stephen Boney, James Bovaird, Karen Hux, and Timothy Jones; the faculty, staff, and graduate student clinicians at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Barkley Memorial Center; Grant Orley for his statistics support; M. Tarek Albaghal for his assistance with survey development; and graduate and undergraduate research assistants: Jessie Patterson, Alaina Bassett, and Bergen Hesse. Lastly, the authors wish to thank the participants for generously sharing their time for this work.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding support for this project from Nebraska Speech-Language-Hearing Endowment Fund and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Barkley Memorial Center Trust Fund. Portions of this article were presented at the American Balance Society Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, March 4, 2015.

Declaration of interest

At the time of data collection, R. Criter was a volunteer member of the Nebraska Older Adult Falls Prevention Coalition (2013-2014). Project funding was awarded to R. Criter by the Nebraska Speech-Language-Hearing Endowment Fund Student Research Grant 2013 and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Barkley Memorial Center Trust Fund. J. Honaker was the mentor associated with funding for this work.