Falls Risk Factors

Current literature has exposed many risk factors for falls. There are both intrinsic risk factors and extrinsic risk factors. Intrinsic risk factors include changes that come with age, such as gait issues, urinary incontinence, and fear of falling. Extrinsic risk factors include those that are related to the physical environment such as improper use of assistive devices and poor floor surfaces. No matter the type of risk factor, it is crucial to conduct a risk assessment when trying to prevent falls from occurring. Pearson and Coburn (2011) found that identifying risk factor for falls will help identify appropriate prevention strategies. Fall risk assessments help determine Talk about

Most hospitalized patients of 65 years and above have been established to be more vulnerable to falling within their homes or in a facility. These falls have been attributed to various causative agents that need to be assessed and managed in an attempt to completely avert falls (Wilbert, 2010). Prevention of falls should be mandatory since they cause more danger to patients, including breakage of the main bones and even death. As a result, the patient may develop a more serious condition such as decrease functional immobility in addition to that which caused hospitalization. Most of these falls have been found to be caused by therapeutic impacts and ignored diagnostic information (Naqvi, Lee & Fields, 2009). For instance, a great number of elderly people who are hospitalized are diagnosed with dementia at the time of admission; hence, such information needs to be taken into consideration during the care of such a patient. Dementia is likely to cause disorientation and confusion which may result in recurrent falls. Therefore, falls may be described as the abrupt and unintended loss of uprightness that leads to body displacement towards the ground falls (Wilbert, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to develop a falls prevention, management program that will reduce the number of falls occurring within an organization.

Falls among any individual can cause significant trauma, often leading to an increase in mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), one in every three adults over the age of 65 falls each year. Long-term care facilities account for many of these falls, with an average of 1.5 falls occurring per nursing home bed annually (Vu, Weintraub, & Rubenstein, 2004). In 2001, the American Geriatric Society, British Geriatric Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Panel on Falls Prevention published specific guidelines to prevent falls in long-term

The widespread falls among the geriatric population reduce their quality of life and take away their functional independence. Lee et al (2013) state that falls leads to the rise in mortality rates and morbidity complications such as fractures and disabilities,1 out of 3 elderly persons in a community setting falls in a year. About 87% of all fractures in the elderly are due to falls. Several of the risk factors that are associated with falls are visual impairments, cognitive impairments, and health-related problems: arthritis, orthostatic, back pains, lack of balance-weakening muscles, previous falls, polypharmacy or psychoactive drugs (Lee et al, 2013).

The incidence of fall-related injuries in the elderly U.S. population will continue to increase (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017).

Falls are a common and complex geriatric syndrome that cause considerable mortality, morbidity, reduced functioning, and premature nursing home admissions. Falls have multiple precipitating causes and predisposing risk factors, which make their diagnosis, treatment, and prevention a difficult clinical challenge. Identifying effective interventions to prevent falls and fall-related injuries among older adults is a major area of research and policy development in geriatrics. Several published clinical guidelines review the evidence for fall prevention strategies and provide recommendations for assessment and intervention (Rubenstein & Josephson, 2006).

“In the United Sates, unintentional falls are the most common cause of nonfatal injuries for people older than 65 years (Hughes, 2008).” This illustrates a problem that requires addressing. “Rates of falls vary across hospitals and units however, the highest rates are found in neuroscience (6.12-8.83/1000 patient days) and medical (3.48-6.12 falls/1000 patient days) units” (Mion, 2014). Older adults are usually those most affected and their falls are

Therefore, one could understand the importance of fall prevention among the elderly population in both the institutional and home settings. The following will discuss best practices to assist in the prevention of falls and geriatric syndromes.

The functional independence measure (FIM) was utilized to identify patients who are at a high risk for fall and found that patients who fell had a lower admission and discharge FIM scores than the ones who had not fallen; they also found that those with lower FIM scores were stroke rehabilitation patient and had the highest rate of fall. FIM is defined as a measurement of disability specific to patients in rehabilitation; it has has 18 categories broken down into motor and cognitive components with each category scored on a scale of 1 for total dependence to 7 for total independence. The authors of the research article determined that FIM score have significance in predicting patients who are at a highest risk of falls and is more appropriate to aid in implementing interventions. With the above discovery, Salamon, Victory & Bobay (2012) undertook retrospective pilot study to compare the Morse Fall Scale scores and components of the FIM. The result from the pilot study yielded several important correlations between the Morse Fall Scale and the FIM scores. The study revealed that patient with cognitive impairments, and those with decreased ability to expressed needs are more likely to fall and no correlation with comprehension was found with the

Problem statement: According to Quality Improvement Organization Health Services Advisory Group, Alabama’s state average for falls without injury is 41.9% with the National average being slightly higher at 45%, falls with injury in Alabama is 3.2% with the National average being 3.4%. Research done by the Alzheimer’s Association (2016) has revealed that “People with dementia are at risk of falls because of their neurological impairments.” Another study completed by Esstmann discusses “The etiology of orthostatic hypotension should be investigated for older adults with known orthostatic

Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries in the elderly patients living in the long-term care setting. The aim of this project was to identify risk factors associated with increase falls among the elderly in order to prevent and monitor safety related events relating to falls. There are numerous risk factors associated with falls among the elderly, as the direct care nurse, working in the long-term care setting, we need to identify any possible factors that can contribute to falls, in order to prevent injury. Through evidence-based research and education we can help decrease the incidents of falls in our elderly community.

Fall risk assessments tools, which help to identify those patients at risk of falling, play a vital role in reducing the number of falls. The basis for this assessment is that if patients at high fall risk can be

A fall is a lethal event that results from an amalgamation of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which predispose an elderly person to the incident (Naqvi et al 2009). The frequency of hospital admission due to falls for older people in Australia, Canada, UK and Northern Ireland range from 1.6 to 3.0 per 10 000 population (WHO 2012). The prevalence of senior citizen’s falls in acute care settings varies widely and the danger of falling rises with escalating age or frailty. Falls of hospitalized older adults are one of the major patient safety issues in terms of morbidity, mortality, and decreased socialization

Risk factors for falls are categorized by intrinsic or extrinsic (Tzeng, & Yin, 2009). According to Tzeng and Yin (2008), intrinsic factors, referring to the patient themselves, are related to their health status and possibly associated with age-related changes: previous falls, reduced vision, unsteady gait, musculoskeletal system deficits, mental status deficits, acute illness, and chronic illness. Extrinsic factors are involved in the patient’s environment, including medications, lack of support equipment, furniture, bathroom designs, small patient rooms, poor lighting, and improper use of and inadequate assistive devices. Tzeng & Yin (2008; 2009) focused on the extrinsic risk factors for the basis of their studies.

Falling is inevitable at some point in life, and although most of the time falls are not serious, some can be life-threatening. Falls are a danger to both physical and psychological well-being because they may diminish a person’s ability to maintain an active and independent lifestyle.1 There are many factors that place individuals at risk for falls such as age, muscle weakness, difficulty with balance or walking, psychological diagnosis, and several medical conditions.1,2 Approximately one-third of people over the age of 65 fall at least once a year.3 Individuals that are status post stroke are at an increased risk of falls, making falls assessment and prevention a common priority for clinicians treating this population.1,2 Therefore, to direct the experimental methods and build on a basis of previous literature on this topic, the search began using OneSearch, CINAHL, PubMed, and