Selecting patients for falls-prevention protocols: an evidence-based approach on a geriatric rehabilitation unit

Geriatric rehabilitation treatment focuses on maximizing functional independence in older adults to facilitate a return to independent living following hospitalization. Rehabilitation professionals must therefore balance the need to foster increasing activity levels among patients while, at the same time, preventing falls and potential injuries. This study investigated measures of patient cognition and aspects of health as predictors of the risk for falls among geriatric rehabilitation patients. Fall rates and patient data were collected over an 18-month period. Data from 98 patients were included in the data set. The number of falls was regressed on the patient data to investigate their predictive power. Analyses were also conducted comparing fallers and nonfallers across the independent variables. Results revealed that the primary diagnosis was the only factor evidencing sufficient power for empirical identification of patients at the greatest risk for falls. The clinical implications of findings, in terms of an evidence-based approach to managing falls risk in this population, are discussed in this article.