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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Risk factors and risk assessment tools for falls in hospital in-patients
— a systematic review | | Author(s) | David Oliver, Fergus Daly, Finbarr C Martin |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 33, no 2, March 2004 |
| Pages | pp 122-130 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Falls ; At risk ; In-patients ; Preventative medicine ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Accurate assessment of risk is important in designing interventions to prevent falls in inpatients. 28 papers on risk factors were identified in this literature review, with 15 excluded from further analysis. Despite the identification of 47 papers purporting to describe falls risk assessment tools, only six papers were identified where risk assessment tools had been subjected to prospective validation, and only two where validation had been performed in two or more patient cohorts. A small number of readily identifiable and potentially reversible risk factors for inpatient falls had been repeatedly identifiable in studies. Risk assessment tools with useful operational characteristics and widespread validation are few. Even the best will fail to classify a high percentage of fallers. Perhaps the key is to look for reversible fall risk factors in all patients. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040602215 A |
| Classmark | OLF: CA3: LF7: LK2: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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