TY - JOUR
PY - 2021//
TI - Common types of falls in the elderly population, their associated risk factors and prevention in a tertiary care center
JO - Curēus
A1 - Attar, Meshari
A1 - Alsinnari, Yaser M.
A1 - Alqarni, Mohammed S.
A1 - Bukhari, Ziad M.
A1 - Alzahrani, Abdulmalek
A1 - Abukhodair, Abdulkarim W.
A1 - Qadi, Ammar
A1 - Alotibi, Maryam
A1 - Jastaniah, Nisreen A.
SP - e14863
EP - e14863
VL - 13
IS - 5
N2 - Introduction Falls in elderlies are one of the leading causes of emergency visits worldwide. It is also a major cause of morbidity and mortality and imposes a significant burden on health care costs. This study investigates risk factors in elderlies aged 65 and above that contribute to falls.
METHODology This study is a cross-sectional study using a non-probability consecutive sampling technique. The records of 300 clinical data of elderly who underwent falls were collected from all confirmed cases of falls from January 2015 to January 2020, at National Guard Hospital in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
RESULTS Patients included in this study were ranged in age from 65 to 85 years with a mean age of 77.6 years (SD = 8.1 years). Among our population, 149 (53.4%) were males, and 130 (46.6%) were females. Some comorbidities were associated with our population such as diabetes mellitus (69.2%, n = 193), hypertension (75.3%, n = 210), smoking (6.1%, n = 6.1), and polypharmacy (18.3%, n = 51).
CONCLUSION Understanding and evaluating risk factors can help to decrease or even prevent falls. Smoking and dementia are strongly related to increased mortality rate. Some outcomes of falls such as head injuries and ICU admission had a strong association to increased mortality. Physical therapy or occupational therapy found to be a strong factor to decrease fall recurrence.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2168-8184 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.14863 ID - ref1 ER -