Abstract: Objective: To compare the incidence rate and influencing factors of falls between elderly and middle-young maintenance hemodialysis patients. Methods: We performed a multicenter cross-sectional interview-based survey to determine one-year fall incidence rate and fall characteristics in 1230 dialysis patients from thirteen public hospitals in Jiangsu Province by using convenience sampling. Results: Among the 1230 patients, there were 349 patients aged 65 years or above, and 881 patients aged under 65 years of age. The fall incidence rate among elderly maintenance dialysis patients and middle-young patients were 23.2% and 10.7%, respectively. Whether having poor balance and gait, secondary hyperparathyroidism and poor eyesight or hearing were identified as independent fall-related factors among elderly maintenance dialysis patients. Duration of dialysis, whether having secondary hyperparathyroidism, chronic pain, intradialytic hypotension, whether using auxiliary equipment were identified as independent fall-related factors among middle-young maintenance dialysis patients. Conclusion: The fall incidence rate among elderly dialysis patients is much higher than that of middle-young patients. There are more independent fall-related factors in middle-young maintenance hemodialysis patients and they are more closely related to dialysis. The shared independent fall-related factor between two groups is whether having secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Key words: hemodialysis; fall; incidence rate; influencing factors