Abstract
Introduction
Falls among older adults (aged ≥65 years) are the leading cause of both injury deaths and emergency department (ED)
visits for trauma. We examine the characteristics and prevalence of older adult ED
fallers as well as the recurrent ED visit and mortality rate.
Methods
This was a retrospective analysis of a cohort of elderly fall patients who presented
to the ED between 2005 and 2011 of 2 urban, level 1 trauma, teaching hospitals with
approximately 80000 to 95000 annual visits. We examined the frequency of ED revisits and death at 3 days, 7
days, 30 days, and 1 year controlling for certain covariates.
Results
Our cohort included 21340 patients. The average age was 78.6 years. An increasing proportion of patients
revisited the ED over the course of 1 year, ranging from 2% of patients at 3 days
to 25% at 1 year. Death rates increased from 1.2% at 3 days to 15% at 1 year. A total
of 10728 patients (50.2%) returned to the ED at some point during our 7-year study period,
and 36% of patients had an ED revisit or death within 1 year. In multivariate logistic
regression, male sex and comorbidities were associated with ED revisits and death.
Conclusion
More than one-third of older adult ED fall patients had an ED revisit or died within
1 year. Falls are one of the geriatric syndromes that contribute to frequent ED revisits
and death rates. Future research should determine whether falls increase the risk
of such outcomes and how to prevent future fall and death.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: April 20, 2015
Accepted:
April 10,
2015
Received in revised form:
March 31,
2015
Received:
January 20,
2015
Footnotes
☆The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
