Falls on an inpatient rehabilitation spinal injuries unit: the characteristics, circumstances, and consequences

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Marshall, Kathryn
Fleming, Jennifer
Atresh, Sridhar
Justin, R Scott
Gustafsson, Louise
Patterson, Freyr
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2022
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Abstract

Study design: Retrospective audit Objectives: To describe the nature of falls and fallers in a spinal injuries unit (SIU) and identify factors associated with having more than one fall (recurrent fallers) and falls with physical or psychological consequences (consequential falls). Setting: An Australian inpatient rehabilitation SIU. Methods: Data were retrospectively extracted from falls incident reports and electronic medical records over a 5-year period. Data were analysed descriptively to summarise participant and fall details. Univariate analyses identified candidate variables for further investigation in a multivariate model for recurrent fallers and consequential falls. Results: Of the 566 persons admitted to the SIU, 132 (23%) participants experienced 207 falls over the 5 years. Of the fallers, 41 (31%) were recurrent fallers experiencing between 2 and 7 falls and 78 (59%) experienced a consequential fall. No significant variables were identified for recurrent fallers. For consequential falls, older age (OR = 1.038, 95% CI, 1.012 to 1.064, p = 0.004) and female gender (OR = 3.581, 95% CI, 1.269 to 10.103, p = 0.016) were significant, as well as falls that occurred on a Sunday (OR = 0.196, 95% CI, 0.061 to 0.630, p = 0.006). Falls while transferring were less likely to be consequential (OR = 4.100, 95% CI, 1.706 to 9.856, p = 0.002). Conclusions: Nearly one quarter of SIU inpatients experienced a fall with almost a third of those who fell experiencing recurrent falls. Older age, female gender, and Sundays were risk factors for falls with consequence.

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Spinal Cord

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© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Rehabilitation

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Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Clinical Neurology

Neurosciences & Neurology

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Marshall, K; Fleming, J; Atresh, S; Justin, RS; Gustafsson, L; Patterson, F, Falls on an inpatient rehabilitation spinal injuries unit: the characteristics, circumstances, and consequences, Spinal Cord, 2022

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