Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Mar 2:2014:256519.
doi: 10.1155/2014/256519. eCollection 2014.

Fall-related emergency department admission: fall environment and settings and related injury patterns in 6357 patients with special emphasis on the elderly

Carmen A Pfortmueller  1 , Mirco Kunz  2 , Gregor Lindner  1 , Athanasios Zisakis  3 , Stefan Puig  4 , Aristomenis K Exadaktylos  3
Affiliations

Fall-related emergency department admission: fall environment and settings and related injury patterns in 6357 patients with special emphasis on the elderly

Carmen A Pfortmueller et al. ScientificWorldJournal. .

Abstract

Principals: Throughout the world, falls are a major public health problem and a socioeconomic burden. Nevertheless there is little knowledge about how the injury types may be related to the aetiology and setting of the fall, especially in the elderly. We have therefore analysed all patients presenting with a fall to our Emergency Department (ED) over the past five years.

Methods: Our retrospective data analysis comprised adult patients admitted to our Emergency Department between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2010, in relation to a fall.

Results: Of a total of 6357 patients 78% (n = 4957) patients were younger than 75 years. The main setting for falls was patients home (n = 2239, 35.3%). In contrast to the younger patients, the older population was predominantly female (56.3% versus 38.6%; P < 0.0001). Older patients were more likely to fall at home and suffer from medical conditions (all P < 0.0001). Injuries to the head (P < 0.0001) and to the lower extremity (P < 0.019) occurred predominantly in the older population. Age was the sole predictor for recurrent falls (OR 1.2, P < 0.0001).

Conclusion: Falls at home are the main class of falls for all age groups, particularly in the elderly. Fall prevention strategies must therefore target activities of daily living. Even though falls related to sports mostly take place in the younger cohort, a significant percentage of elderly patients present with falls related to sporting activity. Falls due to medical conditions were most likely to result in mild traumatic brain injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of injury type.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Heinrich S, Rapp K, Rissmann U, Becker C, König HH. Cost of falls in old age: a systematic review. Osteoporosis International. 2010;21(6):891–902. - PubMed
    1. Watson WL, Mitchell R. Conflicting trends in fall-related injury hospitalisations among older people: variations by injury type. Osteoporosis International. 2011;22(10):2623–2631. - PubMed
    1. Sartini M, Cristina ML, Spagnolo AM, et al. The epidemiology of domestic injurious falls in a community dwelling elderly population: an outgrowing economic burden. European Journal of Public Health. 2010;20(5):604–606. - PubMed
    1. Ullah S, Finch CF. Functional data modelling approach for analysing and predicting trends in incidence rates—an application to falls injury. Osteoporosis International. 2010;21(12):2125–2134. - PubMed
    1. Moore M, Williams B, Ragsdale S, et al. Translating a multifactorial fall prevention intervention into practice: a controlled evaluation of a fall prevention clinic. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2010;58(2):357–363. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms