• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.200-209
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effects of a fall prevention program on knowledge, efficacy, and prevention behavior of falls among the low-income elderly. Methods: This study used a nonequivalent control group pre and post test quasi-experimental research design. The study was conducted from August to October, 2008 with 20 subjects in the experimental group and 22 in the control group who were registered at the public health center of S District in D City. Results: Hypothesis 1 "The experimental group that participated in the fall prevention program will show a higher degree of knowledge about falls than the control group" was supported. Hypothesis 2 "The experimental group will have a higher degree of self-efficacy of falls than the control group" was not supported. Hypothesis 3 "The experimental group will report fall prevention behavior more frequently than the control group" was supported. Conclusion: It was verified that the fall prevention program in this study was an effective intervention to improve knowledge about falls and fall prevention behaviors among the low-income elderly. The results can be used as part of an intervention to prevent falls for the vulnerable elderly such as the low-income elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Purpose: The goal was to use electronic health records to identify factors and outcomes associated with falls among patients admitted to hematology units. Methods: This retrospective case-control study included data from a tertiary university hospital. Analysis was done of records from 117 patients with a history of falls and 201 patients with no history of falls who were admitted to the hematology unit from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2014. Risk factors were analyzed using hierarchical logistic regression; patient outcomes were analyzed using multiple logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and multiple linear regression. Results: Clinical factors such as self-care nursing (OR=4.47, CI=1.64~12.11), leukopenia (OR=6.03; CI=2.51~14.50), and hypoalbuminemia (OR=2.79, CI=1.31~5.96); treatment factors such as use of narcotics (OR=2.06, CI=1.01~4.19), antipsychotics (OR=3.05, CI=1.20~7.75), and steroids (OR=4.51, CI=1.92~10.58); and patient factors such as low education (OR=3.16, CI=1.44~6.94) were significant risk factors. Falls were also associated with increased length of hospital stay to 21.58 days (p<.001), and healthcare costs of 17,052,784 Won (p<.001). Conclusion: These findings can be a resource for fall prevention education and to help develop fall risk assessment tools for adults admitted to hematology units.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.270-276
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate the Edmonson psychiatric fall risk assessment tool (EPFRAT) for psychiatric inpatients. Methods: Data from retrospective study were collected from 670 adult inpatients in two departments of mental health medicine of a tertiary general hospital by reviewing their electronic medical records. There were 41 patients who experienced falls and 629 patients who did not experience falls during the period from January to December 2019. Data were analyzed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and a receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) for validity assessment using the IBM SPSS/WIN 26.0 program. Results: Factors affecting falls were the participant's age, guardian's residence, high-risk determination at the time of admission, and comorbidity. At the 85 points where the point of sum of the sensitivity and specificity was largest, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EPFRAT were 92.7%, 79.7%, 22.9%, and 99.4%, respectively. The area under the ROC to assess the overall validity of the tool was .92 (95% CI 0.89~0.94). Conclusion: The EPFRAT was proved to be valid and reasonable for predicting falls in psychiatric inpatients. Based on the results of this study, it could be used for the assessment of high-risk patients for falls in psychiatric units.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.43-54
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• 2024

Purpose: Falls among persons older than 65 years are a significant concern due to their frequency and severity. This study aimed to develop a vest-type embedded artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of detecting and predicting falls in various scenarios. Methods: In this study, we established and developed a vest-type embedded AI system to judge and predict falls in various directions and situations. To train the AI, we collected data using acceleration and gyroscope values from a six-axis sensor attached to the seventh cervical and the second sacral vertebrae of the user, considering accurate motion analysis of the human body. The model was constructed using a neural network-based AI prediction algorithm to anticipate the direction of falls using the collected pedestrian data. Results: We focused on developing a lightweight and efficient fall prediction model for integration into an embedded AI algorithm system, ensuring real-time network optimization. Our results showed that the accuracy of fall occurrence and direction prediction using the trained fall prediction model was 89.0% and 78.8%, respectively. Furthermore, the fall occurrence and direction prediction accuracy of the model quantized for embedded porting was 87.0 % and 75.5 %, respectively. Conclusion: The developed fall detection and prediction system, designed as a vest-type with an embedded AI algorithm, offers the potential to provide real-time feedback to pedestrians in clinical settings and proactively prepare for accidents.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.264-274
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was done to determine inpatient fall rates in an acute hospital setting and to explore risk factors and characteristics across clinical departments. Methods: The medical records and standardized fall reports of 416 patients admitted between January 1 and December 31, 2012 were reviewed. Descriptive statistics and statistical tests were used, including: t-test, ${\chi}^2$-test, ANOVA. Results: The total fall rate per 1,000 inpatient days was 0.49. Fall rate, fall risk factors and characteristics such as age, type of fallers and mean MFS (Morse Fall Scale) differed significantly among clinical departments. Conclusions: The analysis results show that the fall rates, fall risk factors and characteristics of acute hospital inpatient falls varied significantly across clinical departments. The findings of this study suggest that hospitals should consider differences in fall related characteristics across clinical departments when implementation fall prevention strategies and interventions.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2021

Considering that the aged population increases and the mobility problem is pointed out as a factor that indisposes the quality of life, cognition, and mood, it is important to understand and evaluate the elderly's mobility. Factors that deteriorate mobility in the elderly include physical senility, various health changes including chronic diseases, polypharmacy as well as anticholinergics. Common mobility problems in old age are reduced gait speed, increased gait variability in walking length, careless walking, and frequent falls. Several studies have reported that decreased mobility and deterioration of gait can predict cognitive decline and emotional problems. Aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, and balance exercise are suggested as therapeutic interventions for mobility problems. Active correction for factors that reduce mobility in the elderly and prescribing physical activity can conserve the elderly's quality of life and help improve cognition and mood. There is a need for related research in the future.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors increasing fall risk in the residential environment risk and the perceived fall risk among the older adults who received home care services to provide information for developing a comprehensive falls intervention program. Methods: The subjects were 227 community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years and over who were taken care of by home-visiting nurses of the national health centers. The data were collected from July to August in 2012 using the Choi's residential environmental risk scale (2010) and the Hong's fall risk scale (2011). Results: Requires an assistive devices to walk, modified residential environment, health security, approval certificate of LTC, residential safety perception, residential environment risk, and perception of fall risk were statistically significant risk factors. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that room & kitchen, physical perception, medication & ADL perception, floor-related environmental perception, and daily living tool-related perception were statistically significant predictors of fall. Conclusion: The results showed that the residential environment and the perceived fall risk were associated with fall experiences among the elderly. It is necessary to develope multifactorial intervention programs considering both environmental and perceived risk factors as well as physical risk factors to reduce and prevent falls among the elderly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2012

Objectives: Recently injury has become a major world-wide health problem. But studies in Korea about injuries were very few. Thus, this study was conducted to analyze the trend of major injuries from 1991 to 2006 and to provide basic data for preventing injuries. Methods: This study was based on the National Statistical Office data from 1991 to 2006 and calculated to estimate the burden of major injuries by using the standard expected years of life lost (SEYLL) and total lost earnings equation. Results: For transport accidents, mortality, SEYLL and total lost earnings were increased from 1991 to 1996 and decreased from 2000 to 2006. On the other hand, for suicides, these were increased gradually. Since 2003, falls were included in ten leading causes of death. This study showed that injury causes major social and economical losses. Conclusions: We could reduce injury related premature death through active interest in injury prevention program.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.172-183
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• 2019

Background: Falls are the most frequent adverse events reported in hospitals. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence rate and characteristics of falls in patients who used comprehensive nursing care service in National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital. Methods: Incidence rate of falls was investigated in patients using comprehensive nursing care service, from July 2013 to Jun 2017 and compared with those not using this service. The characteristics and risk factors for falls, and fall-related injuries were obtained. Results: Among the 62,445 patients who used the comprehensive nursing care service for 4 years, total of 672 falls were reported. The incidence rate of falls per 1,000 patients-day was 1.15. The percentage of fall-related injuries was 26.9% and that of major injury was 2.2%. Although the incidence rate of all falls was slightly higher in patients using comprehensive nursing care service than those not using this service, falls-related injuries were not correlated with the implementation of this service. Conclusion: The falls could be more frequently detected and reported in comprehensive nursing care service, but there was no difference in fall-related injuries.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.388-397
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the lower limb muscle strength exercise program during hemodialysis on the leg strength and falls efficacy (fall-related self-efficacy) of hemodialysis patients. Methods: The study was designed to be a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group pre and post test design. A total of 42 patients participated in the study. We applied lower limb muscle strength exercise program to the experimental group in every hemodialysis three times a week for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$ test, fisher's exact test, t-test and repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The mean age was 58 years old (t=-1.54, p=.132), the mean hemodialysis period was 67 months (t=1.949, p=.058) and there was no significant difference of dependent variable (t=1.17, p=.251)(t=-.89, p=.381) between the two groups before the experiment. After the experiment, leg strength was significantly improved in the experimental group compared to that of the control group (F=6.63, p=.004). However, falls efficacy was not significantly different between the experimental group and the control group (F=2.33, p=.104). Conclusion: The study results indicated that the lower limb muscle strength exercise program during hemodialysis may improve leg strength and potentially to prevent falls for hemodialysis patients. Further studies are warranted in which larger number of participants and longer duration of intervention are recommended.