Department of Health Sciences, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan.
Faculty of Medical Technology, Teikyo University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Age Ageing. 2017 May 1;46(3):513-517. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afw254.
falls by inpatients often result in serious injuries and deterioration in a patient's physical abilities and quality of life, especially among older individuals. Although various factors have been found to be associated with falls, the combined effects of behavioural and ambient factors are not fully evaluated.
we investigated the influence of both behavioural and ambient factors on inpatient falls, focusing on seasonal and diurnal variations.
retrospective study.
we surveyed the incident reports related to falls from April 2010 to March 2014 and examined the relationship between the incidents and seasonal and diurnal variations in behavioural and ambient factors, including the sunrise time, the night-time length and temperature.
we identified 464 fallers from 3,037 incident reports. The average fall-rate of the study population was 1.4 ± 0.5/1,000 occupied bed-days. The seasonal and diurnal variations in falls were compared. The number of falls around dawn in October-February was higher than that in April-September. Toileting was the behaviour most frequently related to the falls (56.9%, n = 264), and 57.1% of the falls occurred at night. A multivariate analysis showed that the night-time length was significantly related to an increase in night-time falls (P = 0.047).
these results suggested that the inpatient falls increased in the early morning from November to March and tended to be related to toileting activities. Considering these results, additional attention and support during the higher risk hours and seasons, especially in relation to toileting activities, might help to reduce the incidence of falls.
CLINICAL TRIAL NAME, URL AND REGISTRATION NUMBER: N/A (Because of retrospective nature).
住院患者跌倒常常导致严重伤害和身体机能及生活质量下降，尤其是老年人。虽然已经发现许多因素与跌倒有关，但行为因素和环境因素的综合影响尚未得到充分评估。
我们研究了行为因素和环境因素对住院患者跌倒的影响，重点关注季节性和昼夜变化。
回顾性研究。
我们调查了 2010 年 4 月至 2014 年 3 月期间与跌倒有关的事件报告，并检查了事件与行为因素和环境因素（包括日出时间、夜间时长和温度）的季节性和昼夜变化之间的关系。
我们从 3037 份事件报告中确定了 464 名跌倒者。研究人群的平均跌倒率为 1.4 ± 0.5/1000 个占用病床日。比较了跌倒的季节性和昼夜变化。10 月至 2 月黎明时分的跌倒次数高于 4 月至 9 月。如厕是与跌倒最相关的行为（56.9%，n = 264），57.1%的跌倒发生在夜间。多变量分析显示，夜间时长与夜间跌倒增加显著相关（P = 0.047）。
这些结果表明，11 月至 3 月期间清晨住院患者跌倒增加，且倾向于与如厕活动有关。考虑到这些结果，在高风险时段和季节，特别是在与如厕活动相关的时段和季节，增加额外的关注和支持，可能有助于降低跌倒发生率。
