Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .
Development and evaluation of evidence based risk assessment tool (STRATIFY) to predict which elderly inpatients will fall: case-control and cohort studies
Abstract Objectives : To identify clinical characteristics of elderly in patients that predict their chance of falling ( phase 1 ) and to use these characteristics to derive a risk assessment tool and to evaluate its power in predicting falls ( phases 2 and 3 ) . Design : Phase 1 : a prospect i ve case-control study . Phases 2 and 3 : prospect i ve evaluations of the derived risk assessment tool in predicting falls in two cohorts . Setting : Elderly care units of St Thomas 's Hospital ( phase 1 and 2 ) and Kent and Canterbury Hospital ( phase 3 ) . Subjects : Elderly hospital in patients ( aged 65 years ) : 116 cases and 116 controls in phase 1 , 217 patients in phase 2 , and 331 in phase 3 . Main outcome measures : 21 separate clinical characteristics were assessed in phase 1 , including the abbreviated mental test score , modified Barthel index , a transfer and mobility score obtained by combining the transfer and mobility sections of the Barthel index , and several nursing judgments . Results : In phase 1 five factors were independently associated with a higher risk of falls : fall as a presenting complaint ( odds ratio 4.64 ( 95 % confidence interval 2.59 to 8.33 ) ; a transfer and mobility score of 3 or 4 ( 2.10 ( 1.22 to 3.61 ) ) ; and primary nurses ' judgment that a patient was agitated ( 20.9 ( 9.62 to 45.62 ) ) , needed frequent toileting ( 2.48 ( 1.08 to 5.70 ) ) , and was visually impaired ( 3.56 ( 1.26 to 10.05 ) ) . A risk assessment score ( range 0 - 5 ) was derived by scoring one point for each of these five factors . In phases 2 and 3 a risk assessment score > 2 was used to define high risk : the sensitivity and specificity of the score to predict falls during the following week was 93 % and 88 % respectively in phase 2 and 92 % and 68 % respectively in phase 3 . Conclusion : This simple risk assessment tool predicted with clinical ly useful sensitivity and specificity a high percentage of falls among elderly hospital in patients
Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .