539 Epidemiology of elderly falls in Bangladesh: findings from a community-based national representative survey

<h3>Background</h3> Old age is one of the vulnerable stages in the natural process of life. Fall injury in old age is a public health concern both in the context of developed and developing countries. In Bangladesh, due to improved quality of life the number of people over 60 years is increasing rapidly. <h3>Objective</h3> The study is to assess the epidemiological distribution of fall injury among the elderly people in Bangladesh. <h3>Methods</h3> A countrywide cross-sectional house-to-house Survey was conducted in 2016 using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire in order to assess the annual fatal and non-fatal injury outcomes based on socio-demographic characteristics of a total of 70,000 households and 2,99,216 people from 16 randomly selected districts of Bangladesh. Multistage cluster sampling method considering probability-proportional-to-size strategy was used to obtain the desired sample. <h3>Results</h3> The study results indicated that about 7.6% of total population was from elderly age group (60 years and above). The mortality, morbidity and disability rates due to fall injury among the elderly people found were (87.6;95% CI: 56.7–135.3), (8173.4; 95% CI: 7825.0–8536.4) and (289.09; 95% CL: 227.30–367.60) per 1 00 000 populations respectively. The mortality and morbidity rates were found higher among males (100.0; 95% CI: 58.4–171.1), (5724.8; 95% CI: 5338.1–6137.0), whereas disability rate was found higher among females (386.4; 95% CI:281.7–529.9) respectively per 1 00 000 populations. The mortality, morbidity and disability rates in urban and rural areas were (106.6, 95% CI:51.6–219.8), (79.95;95% CI:45.21–138.3); (8098.7;95% CI:7463.0–8783.0), (8203.7;95% CI:7792–8635) and (182.68; 95% CI:104.5–319.0), (332.08;95% CI:254.6–433.0) respectively per 1 00 000 populations. Most of the injury (about 85.1%) occurred at day time ranging from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the common occurrence places were yard and veranda (33.55%). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Fall is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and disability in elderly people in Bangladesh. Males are more vulnerable than females. Yard or veranda is the most common place and day time is the alarming period for this occurrence. Well planned programs need to be undertaken with adequate resources allocation for the support of the elderly population.