Table 3.

Biological aging (frailty) index and risk of 2 or more falls past year (reported during the 2003–05 examination of the Beaver Dam eye study)

					Age-adjusted			Multivariate a adjusted
Index Score	No. at risk	No. of multiple fallers	Crude %	Age- adjusted %	Odds Ratio	95% CI	p =	Odds Ratio	95% CI	p =
Index measured at the 1998–2003 examination
0	1167	51	4.4	5.0	1.00	--		1.00	--
1	518	36	6.9	7.1	1.41	0.89–2.24	0.14	1.30	0.81–2.06	0.28
2	258	26	10.1	6.3	1.89	1.09–3.27	0.02	1.75	1.01–3.03	0.05
3	103	16	15.5	21.5	2.85	1.45–5.60	0.002	2.45	1.24–4.85	0.01
4	47	8	17.0	20.6	3.00	1.23–7.28	0.02	2.53	1.02–6.27	0.05
5	13	4	30.8	21.1	5.89	1.61–21.6	0.007	5.54	1.49–20.6	0.01
Trend					1.38	1.17–1.62	< 0.001	1.33	1.13–1.57	< 0.001
Index measured at the 2003–05 examination
0	931	27	2.9	2.3	1.00	--		1.00	--
1	528	23	4.4	5.8	1.51	0.85–2.68	0.16	1.37	0.77–2.46	0.28
2	365	29	7.9	7.6	2.83	1.59–5.04	< 0.001	2.38	1.32–4.28	0.004
3	234	39	16.7	11.1	6.49	3.57–11.8	< 0.001	4.84	2.63–8.93	< 0.001
4	159	27	17.0	29.9	6.61	3.41–12.8	< 0.001	4.82	2.45–9.47	< 0.001
5	39	11	28.2	24.3	12.69	5.34–30.2	< 0.001	11.00	4.49–26.95	< 0.001
Trend					1.67	1.46–1.91	< 0.001	1.58	1.37–1.81	< 0.001

^afurther adjusted for sex, total number of medications being taken and total number of comorbid conditions (hypertension, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, gout, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, and cardiovascular disease).