The association of falls and various physical activities in Chinese nonagenarians/centenarians

• We observed the association of fall with current and former farm work and exercise in 90+ years old people.
• In very old women, participants with a continuing exercise habit had a significantly lower prevalence of fall than those without an exercise habit.
• Current habitual farm work related with higher risk for fall among this very old population.
• Current habitual exercise related with lower risk for fall among this very old population.
• We should provide more attention on old people who still need do farm work at this very old age.

Little is known about the relationship between falls and various physical activities in the oldest old people. This study was conducted to observe the association of fall with various exercise habits and farm work in very old people. In this cross-sectional study of a Chinese cohort of men and women aged 90–108 years, we observed the association of fall with habitual (current and former) farm work and exercise in very old people. The population included 805 unrelated Chinese nonagenarians and centenarians (68.94% of the subjects were women, with a mean age of 93.70 years). In the women, the subjects with a continuing exercise habit had a significantly lower prevalence of fall than those without an exercise habit; the subjects who had never exercised had a significantly higher prevalence of fall than those who exercised. In men, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of these habits between the subjects with and without fall. After adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, educational levels, life styles, vision levels and temperament, we found that current habitual farm work (OR = 1.755 95% CI (1.107, 2.780)) and exercise OR = 0.666 95% CI (0.445, 0.997) had a significant odds ratio for fall; among the females, continuing exercise (vs. having never exercised) had a significant odds ratio for fall (OR = 0.620 95% CI (0.395, 0.973)). Habitual farm work might be positively associated with fall; however, habitual exercise might be negatively associated with fall in Chinese long-lived old people.