Accident profile of older people in Antalya City Center, Turkey.

Accidents are major health problems leading to deaths and injuries among older people. The present study was performed to investigate the characteristics of the accidents experienced within the last 1 year in people aged 60 years and older living in Antalya City Center. The study was planned as a cross-sectional research. A total of 840 individuals selected from the study population with cluster-sampling method were used in questionnaires. A number of 163 (19.4%) individuals had at least one accident in the last year. A total of 178 accidents were reported within the last 1-year; 124 (69.7%) falls, 22 (12.4%) traffic accidents and 12 (6.7%) dropping of objects to head. The accidents occurred mostly at home (40.4%), at avenue-street etc. (31.5%), and in garden (8.4%). The result of logistic regression analysis revealed that accident frequency was positively related with female gender (odds=1.79, P<0.05), disability of lower extremities (odds=1.63, P<0.05) and hearing impairment (odds=2.01, P<0.05) whereas it was negatively related with living in detached house (odds=0.41, P<0.05). It was found that accidents caused health (82.0%) and financial (38.2%) problems in elderly and also the disabilities in daily activities (66.3%). Average numbers of days with disability in daily activities were 21.1 in 1 year per accident and 5.7 in 1 year per individual. Occurrence of health problems and disability in daily activities were more frequent among women compared to men (P<0.05). Methods like environmental measures or educational programs to prevent accidents and accident-related injuries must be focused on defined risk groups and places where the accidents occur more frequently. Future researches about the effectiveness of prevention in elderly on accident frequency, mortality and morbidity are needed to deal with this current problem.