Relation Between Vertigo and History Of Falls Of Nursing Home For Elderly People In Surakarta

Abstract

Vertigo is a symptom of a disease caused by a disturbance in the vestibular system. Elderly people have decreased vestibular system and this could cause disruption balance. This occurs because of changes in the progressive fragmentation of statoconia utricle and saccule response that causes reduction of the acceleration gravity which results in a fall. The aim of this study was to determine the relation between vertigo and history of falls of elderly people in Surakarta. The design of this study was observational with cross sectional approach and purposive random sampling was applied to select 71 nursing home for elderly people from 927 populations in 10 sampling points. The occurrence of vertigo was assessed by using Vertigo Symptom Scale-Short Form (VSS-SF) while measuring a history of falls using a questionnaire. The correlation was identified by using Chi Square test with a degree of confident by 95%. The majority of the samples were women (70.42%) and their mean age was 67.45 ±5.70 years old. The correlation analysis indicated that vertigo was statistically and significantly associated with the history of fall (Adj.OR=9.24; 95%CI; P-value 0.01). It can be concluded that there was a relation between vertigo and the history of falls of the elderly people in Surakarta.