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. 2021 Jun;30(5):699-706.
doi: 10.1177/1054773820986682. Epub 2021 Jan 10.

Orthostatic Hypotension and Falls in Hospitalized Older Adults

Kathleen Schell  1 , Denise Lyons  2 , Barry Bodt  1
Affiliations

Orthostatic Hypotension and Falls in Hospitalized Older Adults

Kathleen Schell et al. Clin Nurs Res. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the prevalence of orthostatic hypotension (OH) among a convenience sample of older adults on two Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE) units of the ChristianaCare™ in Delaware. Another aim was to determine if subjects with documented OH experienced falls. Retrospective de-identified data was obtained from electronic medical records for the years 2015 to 2018. Among all patients who had valid first orthostatic vital sign (OVS) readings (n = 7,745), 39.2% had orthostatic hypotension on the first reading. Among the patients, 42.8% were found to be hypotensive during OVS. Thirty-one (0.9%) of those with OH fell at some point during their stay. The odds ratio for falls in the presence of OH was 1.34 with a 95% confidence interval (0.82, 2.21), but a chi-square test failed to find significance (p = .2494). The results could not determine if OVS should be mandatory in fall prevention protocols.

Keywords: fall prevalence; inpatient; older adults; orthostatic hypotension.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interest:

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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