Risk factors for falling in a psychogeriatric unit

✍ Scribed by A. John de Carle; Robert Kohn

• Book ID: 102227680
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 69 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.407

✦ Synopsis

Objective:

To identify risk factors associated with falls in a psychogeriatric inpatient population.

Design:

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting:

A psychogeriatric inpatient unit in a brown university affiliated psychiatric hospital.

Participants:

A total of 1834 men and women who represented all admissions to the psychogeriatric inpatient unit between january 1992 and december 1995.

Results:

Over the study period a total of 175 falls were recorded, giving a fall rate of 9.5%. using a logistic regression model, six variables were found to be independently associated with an increased risk of falling: female gender, electroconvulsive therapy (ect), mood stabilizers, cardiac arrhythmias, parkinson's syndrome and dementias. falls and ect were associated with longer hospital stay, when adjusted for confounders including ect.

Conclusions:

These findings support previous results and identify ect as a possible risk factor for falling in a hospital setting.