Risk factors for falls and biopsychosocial repercussions in the elderly: integrative review

Risk factors for falls and biopsychosocial repercussions in the elderly

Abstract

This study aimed to conduct a literature review on risk factors for falls in the elderly and their biopsychosocial repercussions, to contribute to new questions that permeate this population segment in Brazil. The range from 2015 to 2019 was adopted for the bibliographic survey in the VHL, SciELO and PubMed databases. For the operationalization of this review, six steps were followed, including the guiding question, selection criteria and critical analysis of the articles. Subsequently, the selected articles were organized and synthesized with the main information in a table. 185 articles were found, but only 6 were selected, of which 66.7% are on the BVS platform, 16.7% on SciELO and 16.7% on PubMed. The selected articles have their predominance in the description with a quantitative approach to data. It appears that numerous factors raise the risk of falls in the elderly, some being intrinsic and others extrinsic, showing that several mechanisms still need to be elucidated about the correlation of factors and how much each one influences the problem. In addition, it is noted how relevant it is to provide, throughout adult life, the preparation and long-term thinking, so that individuals can face this process in a healthy way, which can help in the non-development of psychopathologies, such as depression and impact the maintenance of quality of life.