Fall Risk Prevention: A Serious Concern for Hospitalized Elderly

Kodi Malar.S, Deol Rupinder, Belsiyal Xavier C

Abstract: Introduction: Older people have a propensity to have falls commonly, with 1 in 3 elders falling at least once a year also, the tendency of older adults to fall raise with age, more than doubling between 70 and 80 years of age especially during hospitalization. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 410 elderly people ages >_ 60 years in inpatients of AIIMS Rishikesh by using the convenient sampling. Fall risk was assessed by john Hopkins assessment tool. Data were then analyzed by SPSS software 23 descriptive statistics, and Chi-square. Results: The mean age for studied population was 65.45 8.42 years, in that 73.65 % were women, 92.68 % were married, 56.09 % stays with spouse, 44.39 % of elderly were admitted in general medicine ward, 31.21 % were hospitalized about 6 to 9 days. The hospitalized elderly was had Moderate risk for fall the mean score was 42.46 5.76 (Possible range 7-13) and association found in between (p=0.045), gender (p=0.043), spouse status (p=0.001), ward admitted (p=0.001) and length of hospital stay (p=0.020) of hospitalized elderly with level of fall risk. Conclusion: Hospitalized elderly had moderate risk for fall during hospitalization and that closely associated with their age, gender, spouse status, disease condition, and length of hospital

Keywords: Fall risk, elderly, hospitalization,