1. Characteristics and outcomes of older adults presented to Spanish emergency departments after a fall
- Author
-
Pere Llorens, Berenice Nayla Brizzi, Clara González Jiménez, Adriana Gil, Raquel Cenjor, Cristina Fernández Pérez, Sira Aguilo Mir, Javier Jacob Rodríguez, Pablo Herrero Puente, Victoria Torres Machado, Francisco Javier Martín-Sánchez, Juan González del Castillo, Montserrat Lázaro del Nogal, Victoria Cantó Blázquez, and Òscar Miró
- Subjects
Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Severe injury ,Functional impairment ,business.industry ,Emergency department ,030208 emergency & critical care medicine ,medicine.disease ,Oldest old ,Fear of falling ,Comorbidity ,03 medical and health sciences ,Older ,0302 clinical medicine ,Falling (accident) ,Elderly ,Health care ,medicine ,Fall ,030212 general & internal medicine ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Geriatric - Abstract
PurposeTo study patient profile, fall-related characteristics and immediate outcomes according to age and to determine the effect of age in the outcomes among older patients presenting to ED after a fall.MethodsCross-sectional analysis of the FALL-ER registry that included patients aged 65years old that presented to five Spanish EDs after a fall. Patients were classified into three age categories, and demographic, comorbidity, chronic medication, fall-related characteristics, health care resources and immediate outcomes data were analysed.ResultsWe included 1610 patients, 541 (28%) aged 65-74, 647 (40.2%) aged 74-84 and 512 (31.8%) aged 85years old. Indoor falls, with no witnesses, at night and due to non-identified causes were significantly more likely among the oldest old. Medications related to risk of falling and antithrombotic therapy significantly increased with age category. Physical, functional and psychological consequences and healthcare resource use increased significantly with age group. Age was independently associated with severe injury (adjusted OR 1.02; IC 95% 1.01-1.04), fear of falling (adjusted OR 1.02; IC 95% 1.01-1.04) and acute functional impairment (adjusted OR 1.02; IC 95% 1.00-1.04).ConclusionsIndoor falls, with no witnesses, at night and due to non-identified causes were significantly more likely among the oldest old. The probability of presenting with severe injury, fear of falling and acute functional impairment increases with age.
- Published
- 2018