Kim Daejin, Portillo Margaret
1 Department of Interior Design, Iowa State University, IA, USA.
2 College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
HERD. 2018 Oct;11(4):65-81. doi: 10.1177/1937586717754185. Epub 2018 Feb 8.
: The main purpose of this research was to identify significant relationships between environmental hazards and older adults' falling.
: Falls can present a major health risk to older persons. Identifying potential environmental hazards that increase fall risks can be effective for developing fall prevention strategies that can create safer residential environments for older adults.
: The research included a retrospective analysis of 449 fall incident reports in two case-control buildings. In the homes of 88 older adults residing in independent living, an observational study was conducted to identify environmental hazards using two assessment tools including Westmead Home Safety Assessment (WeHSA) and resident interviews.
: A fall history analysis indicated that falls occurred in the bathroom were significantly associated with hospitalization. The observational study revealed that the bathroom was the most common place for environmental hazards. The research showed, with increasing age and use of mobility assistive aids, there was a corresponding increase in the total number of environmental hazards. Home hazards were significantly and independently associated with the incidence rate of falls. In other words, the high fall rate building included more environmental hazards compared to the low fall rate building while controlling for residents' age and mobility.
: The current study provides empirical evidence of the link between environmental hazards and older adults' falling, which is useful for developing effective fall intervention design strategies.
本研究的主要目的是确定环境危害与老年人跌倒之间的显著关系。
跌倒可能对老年人构成重大健康风险。识别增加跌倒风险的潜在环境危害对于制定预防跌倒策略有效，这些策略可为老年人创造更安全的居住环境。
该研究包括对两栋病例对照建筑中的449份跌倒事件报告进行回顾性分析。在88名居住在独立生活环境中的老年人家里，使用包括韦斯特米德家庭安全评估（WeHSA）和居民访谈在内的两种评估工具进行了一项观察性研究，以识别环境危害。
跌倒病史分析表明，在浴室发生的跌倒与住院显著相关。观察性研究显示，浴室是环境危害最常见的地方。研究表明，随着年龄增长和使用移动辅助器具，环境危害总数相应增加。家庭危害与跌倒发生率显著且独立相关。换句话说，在控制居民年龄和行动能力的情况下，高跌倒率建筑比低跌倒率建筑存在更多环境危害。
本研究为环境危害与老年人跌倒之间的联系提供了实证证据，这对于制定有效的跌倒干预设计策略很有用。
