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Evaluating the Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale: An International, Multisite Study
Jackie Gonzalez1, Deborah Hill-Rodriguez, Laura M Hernandez
1Nursing (Drs Gonzalez, Hernandez, and Sarik and Mss Hill-Rodriguez and Cordo) and Research Institute (Ms Esteves and Dr Salyakina), Nicklaus Children's Hospital, Miami, Florida; and CRUSADA, Florida International University, Miami (Ms Wang).
Background:
The Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program was developed to address an unmet need to identify pediatric patients at risk of a fall event.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale-Inpatient (HDFS) across a diverse, international pediatric population. In addition, the characteristics of patients who experienced a fall were analyzed.
Methods:
A retrospective, cross-sectional design was used to assess fall risk across 16 hospitals and 2238 pediatric patients. Multiple and simple logistic regressions were performed to evaluate association of individual scale items and total score with falls during hospitalization. Reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of the HDFS were also assessed.
Results:
Several of the HDFS items were significantly associated with the risk of falls in the pediatric population, but specificity of the tool is a concern to consider for future tool enhancement.
Conclusions:
Characteristics for further refinement of the HDFS were identified.
