الفهرس يوجد فقط 14 صفحة متاحة للعرض العام
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المستخلص
Falls represent a serious problem facing the elderly population. The severity of fall-related complications rises steadily after the age of 65 including not only physical injury, but also psychological and social consequences. Falls result from an interaction between predisposing and precipitating factors in people’s environment and in individual demographic and clinical characteristics. Objectives: a) To calculate rate of falls among elderly patients in the Internal Medicine Department in Ain Shams University Hospital. b) To identify different predictors and characteristics of falls. c) To assess clinical consequences and hospitalization outcomes of falls. Subjects and methods: The study was conducted in Ain Shams University Hospital. It was an observational longitudinal study. 411 elderly patients (187 females and 224 males) admitted to different internal medicine departments were included. Upon admission, patients were assessed for their risk of falling using Morse Fall Scale (MFS). Information about their medical condition and drugs administered was obtained. Functional assessment of patients regarding their ability to perform different daily activities was also performed. Patients were followed up during their stay and once a fall event occurred, complete details regarding the circumstances and consequences of that event were obtained. Results: The incidence rate of falls was found to be 16.9/1000 patient days. Fallers had a significantly high risk of falling according to MFS (P=0.02). Most common conditions associated with falls were diabetes (48.7%), hypertension (58.7%) and visual impairment (41.3%). Anemia (P=0.05) and osteoporosis (P=0.02) showed a statistically significant difference between fallers and non fallers. Presence of a previous history of a fall and increased length of hospital stay were highly significant (P˂0.01) factors that predisposed to falls. Logistic regression analysis showed that anemia, osteoporosis and previous history of a fall were independent predictors of falls. Conclusion: Patients with anemia, osteoporosis, a previous history of a fall and increased length of hospital stay are more prone to falls.