Falls increase the risk for incident anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults aged ≥50 years: An analysis of the Irish longitudinal study on ageing

Background: Little is known about the potential impact of falls on the onset of common mental disorders in older adults. Thus, we aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between falls and incident anxiety and depressive symptoms in adults aged ≥50 years living in Ireland. Methods: Data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were analyzed (Wave 1: 2009–2011; and Wave 2: 2012–2013). The presence of falls and injurious falls in the past 12 months was assessed at Wave 1. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed at Wave 1 and Wave 2 using the anxiety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A) and the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D), respectively. Covariates included sex, age, education, marital status, disability, and the number of chronic physical conditions. The association of falls at baseline with incident anxiety and depressive symptoms at follow-up was estimated by multivariable logistic regression. Results: This study included 6,862 individuals (51.5% women; mean [SD] age 63.1 [8.9] years). After adjusting for covariates, falls were significantly associated with anxiety (OR = 1.58, 95%CI = 1.06–2.35) and depressive symptoms (OR = 1.43, 95%CI = 1.06–1.92). These associations were no longer significant after including fear of falling in the models. Similar findings were obtained for injurious falls, although the relationship with anxiety symptoms was not statistically significant. Conclusions: This prospective study of older adults from Ireland found significant associations between falls and incident anxiety and depressive symptoms. Future research may focus on whether interventions to reduce fear of falling could also alleviate anxiety and depressive symptoms.