Ranging from the lower ambient temperature , the presence of snow cover , seasonal factors , and time of the day to location of fall , these factors have different levels of impact related to higher incidence or mortality of fall .
There existed systematic review on studies investigating the association between hip fractures and external risk factors including meteorological factors .
Albeit the fact that most serious common fall injury is a hip fracture , it can not account for all injuries forms of fall .
There was a lack of systematic review covering all fall-related injury or deaths to thoroughly summarise meteorological aspects of fall .
This study aim ed to systematic ally review epidemiological studies of fall and fall-related circumstances without restriction to hip fracture .
Falls among community-dwelling elderly people of Hokkaido, Japan.
BACKGROUND Although the circumstances surrounding falls among community-dwelling elderly people have been described by numerous studies , there are few that have reported falls in the northern regions of Japan , such as Hokkaido , that experience a severe winter with heavy snow . As a preliminary study , we surveyed the circumstances of falls among community-dwelling elderly people in Hokkaido with a self-administered question naire . METHODS Residents living in private homes throughout Hokkaido were r and omly contacted by telephone and those aged over 65 years were recruited for this study . In all , 1000 subjects participated in the survey . A question naire was used to obtain the histories of falls , including the number of falls , the season and place of occurrence , and the cause of the falls in the year prior to the survey . RESULTS Of the 1000 subjects , 849 ( 436 men and 413 women ; mean age , 73.0 years ) completed the question naire . Among the 849 subjects , 277 ( 32.6 % ) fell at least once during the year of the survey . Of these 277 subjects , 155 subjects ( 56.0 % ) experienced two or more falls in the year . Approximately 60 % of the falls occurred during the winter . The most common location where falls occurred was on roads or sidewalks , and slipping was the most prevalent cause . CONCLUSION Our findings revealed several aspects regarding the circumstances surrounding falls among community-dwelling elderly people in Hokkaido
Ranging from the lower ambient temperature , the presence of snow cover , seasonal factors , and time of the day to location of fall , these factors have different levels of impact related to higher incidence or mortality of fall .
There existed systematic review on studies investigating the association between hip fractures and external risk factors including meteorological factors .
Albeit the fact that most serious common fall injury is a hip fracture , it can not account for all injuries forms of fall .
There was a lack of systematic review covering all fall-related injury or deaths to thoroughly summarise meteorological aspects of fall .
This study aim ed to systematic ally review epidemiological studies of fall and fall-related circumstances without restriction to hip fracture .