Author(s): QUINTEROS, F., CANO-CAPPELLACCI, M. , Institution: UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE , Country: CHILE, Abstract-ID: 2308

INTRODUCTION:
Elderly people (EP) pose a challenge for public policy worldwide due to their high disease burden. Chile is no exception, with its exponential population growth. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the pandemic of the 21st century and strongly affect EP who lose years of healthy life. EP in Chile have a prevalence of 73.3% of high blood pressure (HBP), while 30.6% have type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and 33% have dyslipidemia. Multimorbidity in this population is a phenomenon that affects 76.4% of older women (ENS 2016-2017). For older women, it is very important to study these pathologies and how they can affect the performance of fall risk tests in a context such as long-stay institutions.
METHODS:
This study involved 90 elderly women who met the eligibility criteria. Fall risk tests were performed (dynamometry, arm flexion, one-leg balance test, timed up and go test [TUG], quadrant test, and sit-to-stand test in 30 seconds). The sample was grouped into EP without disease (WD), with HBP, with DM2+dyslipidaemia (DM-D) and with 2 or more NCDs (C+2). It was statistically analysed using JAMOVI software and the Kruskall-Wallis test with post-hoc analysis (DSCF pairwise comparisons) was used.
RESULTS:
Tests that assess the risk of falls in institutionalised people with NCDs behave differently depending on the number of diseases present. The median age of the different groups was: WD/81.5 years (n=16), HBP/88 years (n=35), C+2/87 years (n=22) and DM-D/86 years (n=17). The Kruskal-Wallis analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the groups in the hand dynamometry (HD) tests (p=0.035); relative dynamometry (HD-R) ( p=0.024); left single-leg stance test (SLST) (p=0.035); Z-score of functional tests (Z-FX) (p=0.007); quadrant test (T-C) (p=0.047). Post-hoc analyses using the Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner test revealed significant differences between groups in the variables studied, for dynamometry between groups C+2/DM-D (p=0.032), relative dynamometry C+2/DM-D (p=0.022), TAUI C+2/DM-D (p=0.028), SP/DM-D quadrant test (p=0.039), and Z-FX C+2/DM-D (p=0.008).
CONCLUSION:
We can conclude that there are significant differences between the groups in the fall risk tests (HD, HD-R, TAUI, T-C and Z-FX), with the groups with the most frequent significant differences being C+2 and DM-D, reporting 4 out of 5 of the variables studied. It may be proposed to include all these assessments in a battery of tests that is applied longitudinally in the PM population, allowing for adequate monitoring of their health conditions.