Caídas, factores asociados y de riesgo en una población de personas mayores frágilesestudio transversal con validación del diagnóstico de enfermería

Abstract

Introduction Currently, frailty syndrome, closely linked to the loss of functionality, is considered one of most relevant geriatric syndromes at preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic level in the elderly care. It is expected that it generate a high social and health impact in successive years. For this reason, research about frailty in the elderly is becoming a priority around the world, to ensure adequate attention to this population group, based primarily on improving the detection and intervention on the frailty and falls, to thus being able to delay or avoid the loss of functionality, common to both situations. Objectives Describing the general characteristics and risk factors of falls in a sample of institutionalized and frail older adults, according to the presence or absence of falls in the past six months. Material and methods A retrospective observational study of cases (falls in the last six months) and controls (absence of falls in the past six months) was carried out in a sample of 73 frail older adults institutionalized in the Gerontological Complex “La Milagrosa” of A Coruña. Results The mean age was 86.75±7.98 years old, 74% were women, and the number of falls was 61 with a mean of 0.84±1.35 per subject, being the cause of the fall intrinsic in the 57.3% of the sample. Risk factors most often presented by the institutionalized frail elderly with the nurse diagnosis “risk of falls” are the presence of a history of previous falls and the use of fasteners. Conclusions Results collected in the clinical validation suggest that history of falls and use of fasteners are good predictors of the nurse diagnosis “risk of falls” in institutionalized and frail elderly. Other risk factors included in NANDA-I nursing diagnoses 2015-2017 were not specific and predictive of the studied diagnoses