Objectives: We aimed to evaluate if malnutrition and rurality are associated with fall risk and future falls in community-dwelling older adults.
Design: Prospective Cohort.
Setting: Community, Vermont.
Participants: Older adults receiving home support services who completed a health risk assessment (n=3,300; Mean age 79.6 years ±8.4, 75% female). Additional analysis was completed with a subset of 2,043 participants with two-years of consecutive health assessments.
Measurements: Fall Risk Questionnaire, DETERMINE Nutrition Risk Questionnaire, and fall history.
Results: Independently, high malnutrition risk and rurality were associated with fall risk (p<0.001) and high malnutrition risk was associated with rurality (p<0.001). After adjusting for age, sex, and physical function, individuals with high nutrition risk had a 66% increase in the odds of falling over the next year, but rurality was not significantly associated with a new fall.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that falls are associated with malnutrition risk, but the relationship between falls and rurality is less evident. Further research is needed to identify services that may best alleviate malnutrition risk in older adults and aspects of nutrition that are most protective against fall risk.
Keywords: Fall risk; nutrition; older adult; rural health; screening.