Prevalencia de caídas en pacientes ingresados en un hospital universitario

Abstract

Objective: to analyse the prevalence of falls in patients admitted to a University Hospital, as well as to identify the characteristics of those patients who experienced falls, the factors associated with patient care (reasons for falls, the most prevalent specialty, the most frequent shift, whether they were alone or accompanied, etc.) among patients who fell down, and the potential consequences of said falls. Methods: a cross-sectional study, including all adult patients admitted to 20 hospitalization units from the Hospital Universitario de Burgos, who had experienced a fall in 2019 and were included in the register of falls from the GACELA Care® program. The form consisted of 28 data entry fields, and included information about date, time and place of the fall; reasons for falls; consequences of falls, and action by professionals. Descriptive and comparative analysis was conducted, using the relevant statistical tests. Results: in total, 244 (0.9%) falls were registered. The mean age was 73.3 years; 57.8% were male. The highest proportion of falls was recorded at Internal Medicine (29.1%) and Psychiatry (11.1%); 44.2% occurred during the night shift, in patients who were alone (71.7%); without protections (70.5%); and walking around (36.1%). The main reason was motor instability (48,4%); 62.7% of patients remained unharmed. There was a significant association between specialty and work shift and falls. Conclusions: there was a low prevalence of falls in the hospital. The factors associated with a higher proportion of falls were being >75-year-old, male gender, being admitted to medical specialty units, and night shift. Falls commonly occurred when the patient was alone, without protection, when getting up and walking. Most patients did not present any lesions.