Psychosocial risk factors associated with falls among Chinese community-dwelling older adults in Hong Kong

This study examined the relationship between psychosocial factors and falls among community‐dwelling older adults in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. The study included 1573 adults aged 60 or above who lived at home and who were applying for long‐term care services. These participants were part of a large cross‐sectional survey carried out between 2003 and 2004 in which they completed the Hong Kong Chinese version of the Resident Assessment Instrument‐Home Care (RAI‐HC) assessment. Of those persons who were surveyed, 516 (32.8%, 95% CI 30.5% to 35.2%) had fallen in the previous 90 days. Bivariate analyses showed that five psychosocial factors (depressive symptoms, fear of falling, a decline in social activities, the number of hours of informal care support during weekdays and living alone) were significantly associated with falls (P