Incidence of falls among adults with cerebral palsy: a cohort study using primary care data from the United Kingdom

Abstract

© 2019 The Authors. Aim

To compare the rate of falls between adults with and without cerebral palsy (CP). Method

We used primary care data on 1705 adults with CP and 5115 adults without CP matched for age, sex, and general practice attended. We compared odds of experiencing a fall between adults with and without CP using conditional logistic regression. We compared the rate of falls using a negative binomial model. Results

Participants were 3628 males (53%) and 3192 females (47%) (median age 29y, interquartile range 20–42y) at the start of follow‐up. Follow‐up was 14 617 person‐years for adults with CP and 56 816 person‐years for adults without CP. Of adults with CP, 15.3% experienced at least one fall compared to 5.7% of adults without CP. Adults with CP had 3.64 times (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.98–4.45) the odds of experiencing a fall compared to adults without CP. The rate of falls was 30.5 per 1000 person‐years and 6.7 per 1000 person‐years for adults with and without CP respectively (rate ratio 5.83, 95% CI 4.84–7.02) Interpretation

Adults with CP are more likely to fall, and fall more often, than adults without CP. The causes and consequences of falls in adults with CP need examination.