高齢者の転倒と個人特性の関連の検討 <学位論文要旨>

Accidental falls and their individual characteristics for the elderly <Summaries of the Doctoral Theses>

Ando Junko

広島大学大学院総合科学研究科紀要. I, 人間科学研究

Bulletin of the Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University. I, Studies in human sciences

Since Japan becomes the aging society rapidly, cares for aged person have become a great issue for Japan. One of causes of cares for the aged is bone fractures by taking falls. Therefore, it is an important problem to elucidate causes of accidental falls of the old and to execute effective preventive interventions for falls. Main theme of the present study is investigations for the process of fall occurrence, the process of fall prevention, individual characteristics associated with susceptibility to repeat falls, and the process of falls that affect the quality of life (QOL) of elderly individuals.

In Chapter 1, factors concerning to the elderly's falls were discussed, and the problems of the previous researches were classified. Model of the elderly's repeated falls including individual differences was proposed.

Chapter 2 examined factors and individual characteristics associated with elderly's falls, in which they were hospitalized with bone fracture. Results show that falling patterns by the aged were classified into 6 categories by the cluster analysis, that is, "stumbling of a foot", "physical obstacle", "dizziness and staggering", "welfare institution use", "tangle of a foot", and "confirmation lack of security". These falling situations did not relate the extroversion as a personality trait.

Chapter 3 examined situations of accidental falls occurred among the aged with a cerebrovascular dementia, and investigated the causes of falls. Situations of accidental falls were categorized into 7 types: that is, "slipping during a transferring to a wheelchair", "slipping while a walking", "sitting up from a chair", "sitting down on a toilet seat or a sofa", "getting off a bed", "standing up from a wheelchair", and "tripping over something".

Chapter 4 examined the relation of experiences of the elderly's fall and individual characteristics. The extroversion experienced more falls than the introversion, which this result was the opposite of the prediction.

Chapter 5 examined types of coping behaviors after the accidental fall and their relations to individual characteristics. The exploratory factor analysis of coping behaviors revealed four factors; that is, "problem-focused coping", "desire for ambulatory aids and avoidance behavior", "cognitive reorganization", and "cognitive avoidant coping". Individuals in low extraversion and high anxiety aspect in the self-efficacy tended to adopt cognitive avoidant coping.

Chapter 6 investigated relationships among the QOL of elderly individuals, their experience of falls, individual characteristics, and coping behaviors toward falls. Adoptions of preventive copings to re-fall related to high QOL. This result indicated that adequate coping leaded meaningful life of the elderly.

Chapter 7 examined relations of an interest and an attitude toward falls and its prevention for late adult and old person. Falling times in late adult person were not different from those in the old. This result showed that aging of physical and mental functions lead bone fractures by falls.

In Chapter 8, personality factors associated with accidental fall and coping were discussed. Availabilities of countermeasures and clinical application to accidental fall were discussed according to the model of re-fall by the elderly.

Medical sciences [ 490 ]

jpn

広島大学大学院総合科学研究科

Copyright (c) 2011 by Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University All rights reserved

[ISSN] 1881-7688

[NCID] AA12198647

[URI] http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/00032751