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Injuries from falls by older adults in long-term care captured on video: Prevalence of impacts and injuries to body parts Komisar, Vicki; Dojnov, Aleksandra; Yang, Yijian; Shishov, Nataliya; Chong, Helen; Yu, Ying; Bercovitz, Ian; Cusimano, Michael D.; Becker, Clemens; Mackey, Dawn C.; Robinovitch, Stephen N.

Abstract

Background Falls are the leading cause of injuries in older adults. However, most falls in older adults do not cause serious injury, suggesting that older adults may fall in a manner that reduces the likelihood of impact to body sites that are most vulnerable to injury. In this observational study of falls in long-term care (LTC), we tested whether body parts differed in their probability of impact and injury. Methods We recorded and analyzed videos of 2388 falls by 658 LTC residents (mean age 84.0 (SD = 8.1); 56.4% female). We used Linear Mixed Models to test for differences between body parts in the probability of impact and injury, and injury when impacts occurred. Results Injuries were reported in 38.2% of falls, and 85.9% of injuries involved direct impact to the injured body part. Impact occurred most often to the hip/pelvis (probability (standard error) = 0.95 (0.01); p 

Item Metadata

Title
Injuries from falls by older adults in long-term care captured on video: Prevalence of impacts and injuries to body parts
Creator
Komisar, Vicki; Dojnov, Aleksandra; Yang, Yijian; Shishov, Nataliya; Chong, Helen; Yu, Ying; Bercovitz, Ian; Cusimano, Michael D.; Becker, Clemens; Mackey, Dawn C.; Robinovitch, Stephen N.
Publisher
BioMed Central
Date Issued
2022-04-19
Description
Background Falls are the leading cause of injuries in older adults. However, most falls in older adults do not cause serious injury, suggesting that older adults may fall in a manner that reduces the likelihood of impact to body sites that are most vulnerable to injury. In this observational study of falls in long-term care (LTC), we tested whether body parts differed in their probability of impact and injury. Methods We recorded and analyzed videos of 2388 falls by 658 LTC residents (mean age 84.0 (SD = 8.1); 56.4% female). We used Linear Mixed Models to test for differences between body parts in the probability of impact and injury, and injury when impacts occurred. Results Injuries were reported in 38.2% of falls, and 85.9% of injuries involved direct impact to the injured body part. Impact occurred most often to the hip/pelvis (probability (standard error) = 0.95 (0.01); p 
Subject
Falls; Older Adults; Injury; Bone fracture; Head injury; Residential care; Nursing homes; Video capture and analysis
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2022-04-26
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
DOI
10.14288/1.0413049
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/81395
Affiliation
Applied Science, Faculty of; Non UBC; Engineering, School of (Okanagan)
Citation
BMC Geriatrics. 2022 Apr 19;22(1):343
Publisher DOI
10.1186/s12877-022-03041-3
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Copyright Holder
The Author(s)
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Rights

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)