Functional, balance and health determinants of falls in a free living community Amazon riparian elderly Edne ´a Aguiar Maia Ribeiro a , Euler Esteves Ribeiro b , Karin Viegas c , Fernanda Teixeira d , Greice Franciele Feyh dos Santos Montagner e , Kennya Ma ´ rcia Mota b , Fernanda Barbisan f , Ivana Beatrice Ma ˆnica da Cruz g, *, Jose Antonio de Paz a a Instituto de Biomedicina (IBIOMED), Universidad de Leo ´n, 24071 Leo ´n, Spain b Universidade Aberta da Terceira Idade, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Brazil, Av. Djalma Batista, 2470, Chapada 69050-900, Manaus, AM, Brazil c Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de Cieˆncias da Sau ´de de Porto Alegre, Rua Sarmento Leite, 245, Porto Alegre 90050-170, RS, Brazil d Departamento de Educac ¸a˜o Fı´sica, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Gomes Carneiro 1, Pelotas 96001-97, RS, Brazil e Programa de Po ´s-Graduac ¸a˜o em Bioquı´mica Toxicolo ´gica, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Av. Roraima 1000, Pre ´dio 18, 97105900 Santa Maria, RS, Brazil f Laborato ´rio de Biogeno ˆmica, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Av. Roraima 1000, Pre ´dio 19, 97105900 Santa Maria, RS, Brazil g Programa de Po ´s-Graduac ¸a˜o em Bioquı´mica Toxicolo ´gica e Programa de Po ´s-Graduac ¸a˜o em Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, Brazil 1. Introduction Brazil has one of the fastest aging populations in the world since the proportion of elderly people increased from 8.8% to 11.1% between 1998 and 2008 (IBGE, 2011; Aquino et al., 2012), in view of the rapid aging of the population, increased chronic diseases and disabilities prevalent that affect the older persons. However, Brazil presents a high ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as socio- economic conditions that have an influence on aging and diseases related to difficulties with the standardized health prevention programs. Most of today’s older Brazilian adults who were born in rural areas but now live in urban centers have endured significant socio- economic adversity throughout their lives. They have received little or no formal education and have worked in poorly paid, unskilled occupations (Aquino et al., 2012). Despite such hard conditions, they live better and have more access to health services than the elderly who remained in rural areas. This is the case of elderly living in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon region consists of 7 million km 2 and represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests. Most of the Amazon River Basin’s population is concentrated in small urban settlements localized along the river and its main tributaries (Whitmore, 1998). The geographic and economic difficulties related to health service access of the Amazon riparian communities contributed to the high maintenance of much of today’s older population’s high risk of illness during their lifetime mainly through the presence of highly transmissible diseases such as malaria and leishmaniasis as Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics xxx (2012) xxx–xxx A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 5 June 2012 Received in revised form 15 July 2012 Accepted 24 August 2012 Available online xxx Keywords: Older Falls Fractures Aging Riverine people Morbidities A B S T R A C T The aim of this study was to investigate socio-economic, clinical, anthropometric, balance and functional fitness factors present in Amazon riparian older persons that can be associated with a risk of falling. A cross sectional study was performed with 637 riverine elderly residents (60 years old) in Maue ´s city Amazonas, Brazil. The elderly were grouped in two categories with and without a history of falls in the past six months. The following variables were compared between these groups: self-reported social and health conditions; biochemical and physiological variables related to the control of metabolic diseases; body composition; hand grip strength; functional fitness evaluation using the Senior Fitness Test (SFT) battery, and balance condition using the Berg Balance Test (BBT). The prevalence of at least one fall in the past six months was 24.6% (n = 157) and was similar between the sexes. The mean age between males and females with and without a history of falls was also similar (males with falls = 72.67  8.86; males with no falls = 73.26  7.58) female falls = 71.78  8.18, female with no falls = 71.48  8.17). A history of falls was associated with hospitalization in the last year and to self-health perception to both sexes and presence of chronic morbidity and percentage of body fat (BF) to women. However, the other variables including balance and functional fitness, did not present differences between elderly with and without a history of falls. These results suggest that falls experienced by the riparian elderly are strongly associated to accidents due to environmental conditions related to daily life. ß 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Av. Roraima 1000, Pre ´ dio 19, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. Tel.: +55 55 32208163; fax: +55 55 32208239. E-mail address: ibmcruz@hotmail.com (I.B.M. da Cruz). G Model AGG-2769; No. of Pages 8 Please cite this article in press as: Maia Ribeiro, E.A., et al., Functional, balance and health determinants of falls in a free living community Amazon riparian elderly. Arch. Gerontol. Geriatr. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2012.08.015 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics jo ur n al ho mep ag e: www .elsevier .c om /lo cate/ar c hg er 0167-4943/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2012.08.015