SRINAGARIND MEDICAL JOURNAL

Volume 35, No. 04, Month JULY, Year 2020, Pages 445 - 450

Fear of falling in type 2 diabetic older patients with and without peripheral neuropathy

Benyapha Sripanya, Chatchai Phirawatthakul

Abstract Download PDF

Background and Objective: Older adults with type 2 diabetic mellitus have long-term hyperglycemia that leads to peripheral neuropathy. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) leads to loss of protective sensitivity of foot, resulting to falling in diabetic patients. In addition, DPN may be increase fear of falling (FOF) and lead to a limitation of the performance of daily activity. However, the associations between the FOF and type 2 diabetic older patients with and without peripheral neuropathy in Thailand have not been study yet. Thus, the propose of this study was to compare the fear of falling in older adults with and without type 2 diabetic peripheral neuropathy and healthy older adults. Methods: One hundred fourteen participants were divided into three groups; i) type 2 diabetic older patients with peripheral neuropathy group (n = 38), ii) type 2 diabetic older patients without peripheral neuropathy group (n= 38) and, iii) healthy older adult group (n = 38). All subjects were evaluated FOF by the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I). Results: Type 2 diabetic older patients with peripheral neuropathy group showed significantly higher scores of FOF test (33.36±6.98) as compared to those of the type 2 diabetic older patients without peripheral neuropathy group (24.34±6.76) and the healthy older adult group (16.39±0.50) (p < 0.05). Moreover, FOF score in the type 2 diabetic older patients without peripheral neuropathy group was significant higher than healthy older adult group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The FOF in type 2 diabetic older patients with peripheral neuropathy was higher than type 2 diabetic older patients without peripheral neuropathy and healthy older adult, which was a main contributory factor of falling among elderly.

Keywords

Type 2 Diabetic Mellitus, Peripheral neuropathy, Fear of falling, Older adult

---