Authors

1Víctor Frías Trigo, 2José García Mérida

Position

¹Supervisor de Enfermería. Unitat de Llevant dels Centres Assistencials Torribera, Barcelona. ²Fisioterapeuta. Unitat de Llevant dels Centres Assistencials Torribera, Barcelona.

Contact address

Unitat de Llevant dels Centres Assistencials Torribera. C/Prat de la Riva, 171. Sta. Coloma de Gramenet. 08924 Barcelona.

Contact email: Vfrias@diba.es

Abstract

Objective: to define the profile of users who suffer from falls, detecting risk factors.

Material and method: transversal, descriptive observational study of a sample consisting of 166 people who were admitted into the hospital during the period between july and december of 2001 in a psychogeriatric unit. The studied variables were: fall rates, circumstances in which they took place, place, time, mechanism of the fall and its consequences. For data assessment Access and Excell 97 were used, computing indexes of descriptive statistics.

Results: the incidence of first falls was 20%. 55% of them occurred in people aged between 77 and 85 years, of which 58% were women. 45% of the falls occurred predominantly in the lunchroom and at the busiest times. As regards the causes for the fall, intrinsic factors predominated in a 44%. Serious lesions, fractures and/or post-fall syndrome, accounted for 2% of the total. There is a 50% increase in the risk of falling after the 11th day of admission.

Conclusion: the analysis of the data concludes that it is essential to have nursing logs to be able to determine the risk factors for the falls. Not withstanding extrinsic factors, it is clear that more attention should be paid to intrinsic factors, acting in a preventive manner and developing studies that help us determine the risk of falling that each individual user bears from the very beginning.

Keywords:

falls; half stay; long stay; psychogeriatrics; socio-sanitary; geriatrics and gerontologyelderly

Versión en Español

Título:

Caídas en una Unidad Sociosanitaria