Nursing diagnosis Risk for Falls in the elderly in primary health care

to evaluate the Nursing Diagnosis (ND) Risk for Falls in elderly subjects in primary health care in the Federal District.

a descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study conducted in two basic health units. Data collection included blood collection, nursing consultation and physical evaluation of 156 elderly subjects with chronic diseases.

the most prevalent intrinsic risk factors of NANDA-I were visual impairment (73.7%), impaired mobility (70.5%) and history of falls (69.9%); and extrinsic factors were the use of insufficient material in the bathroom (60.3%) and loose carpets (58.3%). The intrinsic factors that increased the risk for falls were the use of assistive devices (OR 3.50; p=0.030), impaired walking (OR 2.84; p=0.019) and cognitive impairment (OR 1.26; p=0.019); and the extrinsic factor was the use of loose rugs (OR 1.59; p=0.041).

this ND has proved to be a valuable instrument for the identification of risk factors for falls in elderly subjects in primary care.