GAIT AND ACTIVITY IN THE ELDERLY - IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNITY FALLS-PREVENTION AND TREATMENT PROGRAMS

Falls are the major cause of accidents in the elderly. Falls result fr om the interaction of medical, psychosocial and age-related changes wi th environmental conditions. Since many of these factors are amenable to change, theoretically many falls are preventable. As part of a mult i-method community fall prevention programme we developed a gait asses sment method (ELGAM). We report here on the association between ELGAM parameters and measures of social and physical activity, tested among 36 elderly community-dwelling persons. Social and physical activity we re associated with only some of the gait parameters (turning head whil e walking and walking speed). However, the findings about gait are con sistent with other research based on larger samples, and some of the f indings from intervention research. Together they suggest the importan ce of social and physical activity in fall prevention programmes.