The purpose of this study was to investigate specific relationships of fear of falling, health locus of control, perceived anxiety, functional level, and selected sociodemographics of adults over 60 years of age in the Philadelphia area in 1995. Four senior community centers were chosen from the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging (PCA) listing and a center was selected at random to represent the north, east, south, and west neighborhoods of the city. The correlational survey was selected as the most appropriate method for data collection. The convenience sample consisted of 114 subjects who were attending the community centers on data collection days.

Data were collected using a questionnaire which was constructed using Tinetti's Falls Efficacy Scale, Wallston's Health Locus of Control Scale, Spielburger's Trait Anxiety Scale, an adapted version of Groningen's functional level assessment, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Certification of review and approval of this project involving human subjects was obtained on May 9, 1995. The questionnaire was piloted on 19 community elders yielding an alpha reliability of.78.

The data were collected in late spring, 1995 and analysed using Spearman rho correlation procedure, Mann-Whitney U analysis of variance, multiple regression, and other appropriate tools. The results indicated that fear of falling, in this sample, is highly related to functional level; additionally, this fear increases with age, increased medication use, and a history of a recent fall. Health locus of control, although predominatly external in this sample, was not significantly related to functional level. Interestingly, trait anxiety was inversely related to age and was not significantly related to functional level. Regression analysis indicated that fear of falling was a strong predictor of functional level with an R of.791 accounting for 63% of the variance in functional level.

Fear of falling greatly overshadowed all other predictor variables in the regression equation. Within the limitations of this study, the major implication is that fear of falling is related to and predictive of functional level among community elders.