The interplay of falls, fear of falling, loneliness, and social participation in older adults: Evidence from SHARE

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationships between falls, fear of falling (FoF), loneliness, and social participation over a six-year period in a representative sample of older adults from Europe and Israel. METHOD: The sample consisted of 50,444 participants from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), aged 60 or older at baseline (M = 71.49, SD = 8.15), with 55.0 % identifying as female. A series of nested Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPM) were tested to analyze the relationships among falls, FoF, loneliness, and social participation. RESULTS: The best-fitting model, which assumed equal autoregressive and cross-lagged effects across time-points, demonstrated good fit (χ² = 9179.356, CFI = 0.957, RMSEA = 0.032, SRMR = 0.036). The autoregressive effects showed high stability over time. Cross-lagged effects revealed significant relationships between the variables included in the model. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of incorporating social factors when examining the effects of falls and FoF in older adults.