Article

Falls and their associated injuries profoundly impact health
outcomes, functional independence, and health care expenses, particularly for the
ever-increasing elderly population. This systematic search and review assessed
the current evidence for the role of fall screening assessments. OBJECTIVE: To
review the current evidence for fall risk screening assessments in
community-dwelling (outpatient), inpatient medical and surgical wards, inpatient
rehabilitation centers, and postrehabilitation outpatient settings. DATA SOURCES:
MEDLINE and Embase (January 1980 to December 2012). STUDY SELECTION: Prospective
validation studies of acute medical or surgical inpatients, acute rehabilitation
inpatients, outpatients who completed acute inpatient rehabilitation, or
community-dwelling elderly. DATA EXTRACTION: Sensitivity, specificity, positive
predictive value, negative predictive value, receiver operating characteristics
with area under the curve. RESULTS: We summarized key findings from 6 literature
reviews. We then identified 31 articles: 12 studies in community setting, 13 in
the acute medical inpatient or surgical inpatient setting, and 6 studies in the
rehabilitation setting. Twenty-two studies not previously reviewed were included,
and 9 studies previously reviewed were considered relevant and were included to
allow comparison with data from the studies not previously reviewed. CONCLUSION:
We recommend consideration of 7 assessment tools to be used in conjunction with
overall clinical evaluation to assess falls risk: the Timed Up and Go Test with a
cutoff of >12.34 seconds and Functional Gait Assessment among community-dwelling
elderly; St Thomas Risk Assessment Tool in medical inpatients <65 years old and
surgical inpatients; Hendrich fall risk model II in medical inpatients; 10-Minute
Walk Test in patients in poststroke rehabilitation; and Berg Balance Scale or the
Step Test in patients in poststroke rehabilitation who had fallen during their
inpatient stay.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS