Abstract
Purpose :
To determine the associations between fall status and subsequent away-from-home excursions in older adults with glaucoma.
Methods :
Prospective observational cohort of individuals with glaucoma or suspected glaucoma who reported falls prospectively via monthly calendars for 1 year and wore a GPS for 1-week at study baseline and again at follow-up 1 year later. GPS data were utilized to quantify average daily excursions, average daily time away from home, average time per excursion, and percentages of days without excursions. Fall status was defined as fallers (≥1 fall), recurrent fallers (≥2 falls), injurious fallers (≥1 injurious fall), and recurrent injurious fallers (≥2 injurious falls) using falls data collected over the first study year. Separate negative binomial regression models were used to evaluate the association between fall status and each excursion parameter at follow-up. Integrated visual field (IVF) sensitivity was evaluated as a potential confounder and effect modifier, and models were adjusted for covariates (Table 1). Generalized estimating equations models accounting for clustering by individual were utilized to evaluate change in excursion parameters comparing follow-up assessment to baseline.
Results :
One-hundred and eighty-five individuals participated in the study, and roughly half were males (50.8%) with a mean age of 70.3 years; just over one fourth were Black (28.1%) (Table 2). There were no statistically significant associations between fall status and excursion parameters at the follow-up assessment (p>0.52 for all) and IVF sensitivity did not appear to modify these relationships, at baseline or follow-up (p> 0.14 for all). Excursion patterns at the follow-up assessment were not significantly different from those at baseline and did not differ by fall status (p> 0.131 for all).
Conclusions :
Individuals with poor vision from glaucoma who fell did not modify their away-from-home excursions and did not display any restrictions in their excursion patterns compared to their counterparts who did not fall. Even if participants sustained recurrent or injurious falls, daily excursions patterns were not altered.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.