• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.149-159
• /
• 2015

Purpose: This study aimed to identify falls and related risks of hospitalized patients in order to provide an baseline data to develop effective nursing intervention programs for fall prevention. Methods: The data on 120 patients who experienced falls from 2010 to 2013 during their hospitalization were collected from the patient' electronic medical records of an university hospital. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics using SPSS/WIN 20.0. Results: Over 60% of the patients who experienced falls during their hospitalization was 65 years or older, and most of them had hypertension. Majority of the subjects needed help to perform daily activities (64%) and complained of general weakness (49.2%). Prior to the falls, the patients were taking average 2.52 medications to treat hypertension. The Fall accident was mostly frequently occurred in their hospital room (59.2%), or in bed (44.2%). The patients aged 70 years and older were significantly less alert than younger group, and taking more cardiovascular medications. Most fall risk factors were not significantly different for age, gender, and department category. Conclusion: The study findings suggest the need to emphasize the nurses to be more actively aware of fall risk factors and to provide aggressive interventions for preventing falls in hospitalized patients.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.533-542
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the risk of falling associated with postmenopausal women and to identify the relationships between this risk and factors such as lifestyle, metabolic syndrome, and bone mineral density. Methods: The sample was 128 postmenopausal women between 50 and 65 from one menopausal clinic in an urban city. The Risk Assessment for Falls Scale II, developed by Glydenvand and Reinboth (1982) and adapted by Park Young-Hye (2003), was modified and used for this study. Results: The average fall-risk score in postmenopausal women was 7.2 out of 33, the fall-risk score associated with lifestyle was higher in women exposed to stress frequently or who favored spicy or salty foods. The fall-risk score associated with metabolic syndrome was higher in groups with HBP or with a waist circumference of 80cm or greater. The fall-risk score in groups with three or more factors of metabolic syndrome was the highest. Conclusion: The risk of fall in post-menopausal women was higher in groups with only elementary education, unemployed, reported two or more chronic diseases or reported frequent exposure to stress and for women who preferred spicy or salty foods or exhibited three or more factors of metabolic syndrome.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.7-19
• /
• 2006

Falls are a major sources of death and injury in elderly people. Aged-related changes in the physiological systems which contribute to the maintenance of balance are well documented in older adults. These changes coupled with age-related changes in muscle and bone are likely to contribute to an increased risk of falls in this population. Regular exercise may be one way of preventing falls and fall-related fractures. However, the optimal exercise prescription to prevent falls has not yet been defined. On the literature review of exercise intervention for fall prevention in the elderly, exercise appeared to be a useful tool in fall prevention by improving fall risk factors. The optimum exercise prescription; moderate intensity frequency of 3-4 times per week, duration of 30-60minutes can contribute to decreased hazards and number of fall. Fall prevention protocol should include safety, falling effect, enjoyment, and easiness to follow for older people. Effective exercise programs suggested for fall prevention were such as weight-bearing exercise, resistance exercise, lower muscle strength with elastic band, swiss ball exercise walking, tai chi, and yoga.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.96-104
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the influence of fall risk, fear of falling, and social support on older inpatients' fall prevention behaviors. Methods: The participants were 105 older inpatients. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis using the SPSS program. Results: The mean fall risk, fear of falling, social support, and all prevention behaviors were 58.05±28.27, 2.47±0.67, 3.58±0.63, and 2.93±0.48, respectively. There were significant differences in fall prevention behaviors by sex, and fall related to education experience. Fall prevention behaviors were associated with fall risk, and fear of falling. The factors influencing the fall prevention behaviors of the older inpatients were sex, fall related to educational experience, fall risk, and fear of falling. It was found that 21% could explain fall prevention behaviors. Conclusion: The results indicate a need to develop a fall prevention education program, including intervention, to reduce the fear of falling among older inpatients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.50-59
• /
• 2021

The main purpose of accident analysis is to identify the causal factors and the mechanisms of those factors leading to the accident. However, current accident analysis techniques focus only on finding the factors related to the accident without providing more insightful results, such as structures or mechanisms. For this reason, preventive actions for safety management are concentrated on the elimination of causal factors rather than blocking the connection or chain of accident processes. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of safety management in practice. In the present study, a technique to model the correlational structure of accident risk factors is proposed by using the co-occurrence keyword network analysis technique. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, a case study involving a portable ladder fall accident is conducted. The results indicate that the proposed technique can construct the correlational structure model of the risk factors of a portable ladder fall accident. This proves the effectiveness of the proposed technique in modeling the correlational structure of accident risk factors.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2003

Falls are a leading cause of injury, disability and death among people older than 65. Even without injury, falls cause a loss of confidence that results in reduced physical activity, increased dependency and social withdrawal. Fall prevention in the eldery people is a multifaced task that includes both the identification of risk factors and their modification strategies. Fall risk factors have been identified as both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic factors are those related to the physical and cognitive function of the person. Extrinsic factors are those which are included in the environmental hazards of everyday life. Combinations of interventions aimed at modifying both intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors can result in significant fall prevention in the geriatric population. This article selectively reviews the literature reporting exercise intervention to improve strength, balance and mobility.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 1998

The literature review for fall in the elderly has been done for the better quality of life of increasing elderly people toward 21 st century. Because 30 to 50% of over sixty five years old persons have experiences of fall, five percent of the fallen have trauma such as bone fracture requiring hospitalization and three quarter of people who die as fall are over 65 year old, fall is important health problem of them. There are very little societal interest in and research related to fall. Therefore, among recent foreign and our literatures studying literature review of frequency of fall, risk factors and assessing method for tall, and the management of fall prevention program, I would like to find research direction. Conclusivelly, we should study extensively the survey of the elderly's fall and on the basis of it. developing fall prevention program, promote the elderly's health through fall prevention.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.46-52
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting falls in 107 elderly living in the city aged 65 or older by evaluating general characteristics, chronic disease status, medical variables related to falls, balance-related confidence, physical ability and depression. Also, the correlations between the significant differences in variables were identified, and the prediction power was determined by deriving the variables with high influence to induce the fall. In the faller group, urinary incontinence, foot pain, lower extremity weakness, number of chronic disease and medication use were significantly higher than those of the nonfaller group. Also, statistically significant differences were evaluated in ABC (Activities-specific Balance Confidence) score, BBS (Berg Balance Scale) score, SGDS (Short Geriatric Depression Scale), FRT (Functional Reach Test) value. The main correlated factor for fall was ABC score, the lower the ABC score, fall risk is increased which is a significant negative impact. When the evaluation is performed by combining those scales, the hit ratio to classify whether faller or nonfaller is increased to 70.01% which is quite higher value.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.122-131
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the factors related to fear of falling (FOF) in different age groups from community-dwelling mid to late-adults. Methods: To identify the factors related to FOF, data of 162,684 adults over 45 years of age from 2019 Community Health Survey was analyzed using logistic regression with complex samples. Results: Factors related to FOF found in all age groups were sex, previous experience of falls, physical activity levels over moderate intensity, subjective health status, number of chronic diseases, stress, depression, and cognitive decline. In the 45-64 age group, the FOF was significantly higher in the groups of low education level and low monthly household income. In the 65-74 and over 75 age groups, the FOF was significantly higher in the groups of not living with spouse and walking not practiced. Conclusion: We suggests that understanding of risk factors and early detection of fall risk patients in each age group are necessary to establish and apply tailored fall prevention programs for prevention and management of the FOF in community-dwelling mid to late-adults.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2018

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the correlation of cognitive function and fall-risk behavioral factors. Methods: The elderly over than 65 year-old with and without cognitive impairment were recruited in four different regional areas. Total 43 data of K-MoCA and FaB were collected. Pearson correlation of total scores of K-MoCA and FaB was analyzed using SPSS 22. Correlation between total score of K-MoCA and each item of FaB which describes the fall-risk behaviors was analyzed as well. Results: The cognitive function was statistically positive correlated with the fall-related behaviors in pearson correlation analysis (p<.01). Nine items of total 30 items of FaB was significantly correlated with total score of K-MoCA. Conclusion: Fall-risk behaviors were decreased as the cognitive level was improved. If the cognitive function was vulnerable, the insight to fall-risk behaviors deficits and various fall-related behavioral factors exits. The high fall-risk behaviors were correlated with cognitive function, so that the cognitive level should be considered in fall prevention intervention in Occupational Therapy.