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[Falls in nursing homes: on average almost two per bed per year, resulting in a fracture in 1.3%]
B P J Dijcks1, J C L Neyens, J M G A Schols
1Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht. b.dijcks@irv.nl
Objective:
To determine how many falls occur annually in Dutch nursing homes and how many fractures are the result of falls.
Design:
Written questionnaire study.
Method:
All 371 Dutch nursing homes received a questionnaire requesting information on the number of somatic and psychogeriatric beds and the number of falls and fractures as a result of falls in 2000 and 2001.
Results:
Of the 371 questionnaires, 202 (54%) were returned. These were distributed as follows over the three types of nursing homes: combined: 151 (75%), somatic: 15 (7%), psychogeriatric: 36 (18%). The average capacity of the participating nursing homes was 180 beds. There was an average of more than 300 reported falls per nursing home: 336 in 2000 (SD: 180; median 314) and 311 in 2001 (SD: 165, median 294). On average, there were almost 2 falls per bed per year. The number of falls per bed in the psychogeriatric group was higher than in the somatic group. There was an average of about 4 fractures per year per nursing home as a result of falls: 4.3 in 2000 (SD: 3.7; median 4.0) and 3.6 in 2oo1 (SD: 2.8; median 3.0). The average number of annual fractures due to a fall was about 23 per 1ooo beds. An average of 1.3% of the falls resulted in a fracture. There were no clear differences here between somatic and psychogeriatric patients.
Conclusion:
The reported number of falls per nursing-home bed averaged almost 2 per year, and an average of 1.3% of these falls resulted in a fracture.
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