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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Risk factor assessment for falls
— from a written checklist to the penless clinic | | Author(s) | Christopher A E Dyer, Caroline L Watkins, Catherine Gould |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 27, no 5, September 1998 |
| Pages | pp 569-572 |
| Keywords | Falls ; At risk ; Preventative medicine ; Information technology ; Screening ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | The medical and nursing notes of patients in acute geriatric wards at Broadgreen Hospital Liverpool were examined on death or discharge over a 6-month period to identify those admitted with a fall. Important risk factors were listed (poor vision, inappropriate medication, postural hypotension, condition of feet, or inappropriate footwear), and a self-auditing `penless' clinic for fallers was subsequently set up to generate reports for medical notes and letters for general practitioners (GPs). Risk factor identification improved after the insertion of the checklist, but remained relatively poor. A dedicated clinic allowed almost complete identification of risk factors. Of the first 112 patients (median age 82) seen in the clinic, 75 (67%) were housebound. Remediable risk factors - e.g. inappropriate medication (67%), unsatisfactory footwear (59%), and postural hypotension 17%) - were found in most. 33 patients had difficulty with alarm raising. Ward-based intervention showed limited capacity to identify risk factor for falls: a dedicated clinic was more successful. The authors suggest that use of a portable computer with a programme to screen fallers is worth considering. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981119002 A |
| Classmark | OLF: CA3: LK2: UVB: 3V: 4C |
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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