Oral Presentations

Aims: Although increasing age is associated with a greater incidence of persistent pain (pain on most days) and falls, there is a paucity of studies investigating the contribution of pain to serious falls (resulting in hospitalisation) and falls with fracture.This study aimed to examine this association.Methods: This post-hoc longitudinal analysis included 14,155 healthy, community-dwelling Australian participants aged over 70 years within the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial.A pain questionnaire was completed by all participants within approximately 15 months of trial enrollment.Self-report and hospital records were used to identify falls, hospital admission and fracture within 3 years of enrollment.Poisson regression models were used to calculate the contribution of pain to falls.Results: The mean age of participants was 75.2 (SD = 4.3) years, 54% women.A total of 6454 (46%) participants reported persistent pain with 466 (3.3%) reporting a serious fall and 246 (1.7%) with a serious fall with fracture.Although persistent pain was initially associated with a 35% increased risk of serious falls (unadjusted relative risk [RR] 1.35; 95% CI: 1.13-1.61),this was no longer statistically significant following the inclusion of age, gender, body mass index, polypharmacy and cognition (RR 1.16; 95% CI: 0.97-1.40).We did not find an association between persistent pain and risk of serious fall with fracture (unadjusted RR 1.19; CI: 0.93-1.53;adjusted RR 1.03; CI: 0.80-1.32).Conclusions: Persistent pain contributes to falls risk but may be influenced by intrinsic person-factors.