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Table 1 General characteristics of the study population (n = 2189)

From: The association of fear of falling and physical and mental Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among community-dwelling older persons; a cross-sectional study of Urban Health Centres Europe (UHCE)

  

Fear of falling

P-value

Total

(N = 2189)

Low

(N = 1096)

Moderate

(N = 648)

High

(N = 445)

Age (SD)

79.7 (5.6)

78.8 (5.5)

80.0 (5.6)

81.3 (5.6)

 < 0.001

Gender

 Female (%)

1326 (60.6)

550 (50.2)

443 (68.4)

333 (74.8)

 < 0.001

 Male (%)

863 (39.4)

546 (49.8)

205 (31.6)

112 (25.2)

 

Country

    

 < 0.001

 United Kingdom (%)

536 (24.5)

333 (30.4)

134 (20.7)

69 (15.5)

 

 Greece (%)

334 (15.3)

138 (12.6)

115 (17.7)

81 (18.2)

 

 Croatia (%)

485 (22.2)

109 (9.9)

166 (25.6)

210 (47.2)

 

 The Netherlands (%)

339 (15.5)

217 (19.8)

85 (13.1)

37 (8.3)

 

 Spain (%)

495 (22.6)

299 (27.3)

148 (22.8)

48 (10.8)

 

Level of education a

    

 < 0.001

 Primary or less (%)

593 (27.4)

269 (24.9)

206 (32.1)

118 (26.8)

 

 Secondary or equivalent (%)

1357 (62.7)

675 (62.4)

381 (59.4)

301 (68.4)

 

 Tertiary or higher (%)

213 (9.8)

138 (12.8)

54 (8.4)

21 (4.8)

 

Living situation a

    

 < 0.001

 Living with others (%)

1358 (62.2)

726 (66.2)

397 (61.6)

235 (53.0)

 

 Living alone (%)

825 (37.8)

370 (33.8)

247 (38.4)

208 (47.0)

 

Alcohol risk a

    

 < 0.001

 No (%)

1538 (73.8)

715 (68.0)

460 (75.4)

363 (85.8)

 

 Yes (%)

546 (26.2)

336 (32.0)

150 (24.6)

60 (14.2)

 

Physical activity a

    

 < 0.001

  =  < once a week (%)

617 (28.4)

162 (14.8)

185 (28.8)

270 (61.4)

 

  > once a week (%)

1558 (71.6)

931 (85.2)

457 (71.2)

170 (38.6)

 

Smoking a

    

0.184

 Yes (%)

158 (7.2)

78 (7.1)

55 (8.5)

25 (5.6)

 

 No (%)

2026 (92.8)

1017 (97.8)

589 (91.5)

420 (94.4)

 

Multi-morbidity a

    

 < 0.001

 Yes (%)

1988 (90.9)

954 (87.0)

605 (93.5)

429 (96.4)

 

 No (%)

200 (9.1)

142 (13.0)

42 (6.5)

16 (3.6)

 

Fall in last 12 months a

    

 < 0.001

 Yes (%)

667 (30.7%)

241 (22.0)

202 (31.4)

224 (51.3)

 

 No (%)

1506 (69.3%)

852 (78.0)

441 (68.6)

213 (48.7)

 

HRQoL a

     

 PCS (SF-12; range 0–100) (SD)

41.8 (12.1)

47.6 (9.7)

40.0 (10.6)b

30.1 (9.6)b

 < 0.001

 MCS (SF-12; range 0–100) (SD)

50.2 (10.7)

53.4 (9.0)

50.2 (10.2)b

42.4 (11.5)b

 < 0.001

  1. Data are mean (SD) or number of participants (%)
  2. aMissing items: Level of education n = 26, Living situation n = 6, alcohol risk n = 105, Physical activity n = 14, Smoking n = 5, Multi-morbidity n = 1, Fall in last 12 months n = 16;
  3. Fear of falling measure, Short FES-I. Abbreviations: SD Standard deviation, PCS Physical Component Summary of the SF-12, MCS Mental Component Summary of the SF-12; SF-12, Short Form health survey, EQ-5D-5L EuroQol-5 Dimensions-5 level
  4. P-values are based on an ANOVA test for continuous variables (age and HRQoL) and Pearson’s chi-squared tests for categorical variables (all other variables)
  5. bCohen’s d effect size compared to low-fear of falling (FoF) group: PCS Moderate FoF, d = 0.75; PCS High FoF, d = 1.81; MCS Moderate FoF, d = 0.33; MCS High FoF, d = 1.07