Selected risk factors of patients' falls in hospitals: low BMI, hypotension, increased heart rate, hypoglycaemia, anaemia
Abstract
Introduction: The risk of patients' falls in hospitals is affected by a number of risk factors. The risk factors include low BMI values, hypotension or pathological haematological and biochemical blood values, respectively.
The goal of the research study consisted in evaluating the effect of selected physical and laboratory indicators on the incidence of patients' falls in hospitals. Methods: The case-and-control study was chosen for the research.
The case group included 222 patients with fall during hospitalization, and the control group included 1076 patients with similar characteristics within fall during hospitalization. The study included 1298 patients in total.
The data collection lasted from 1. 1. to 31. 12. 2017. Results: The group of patients with fall showed a statistically significantly lower average BMI index (25.9 kg/m2 ) than the control group of patients without fall (27.3 kg/m2 ), p = 0.001.
The risk estimate (RE) at BMI under 18.5 kg/m2 is 1.641 [95%: CI 0.686-3.927]. RE at systolic pressure value under 110 mm Hg is 1.109 [95%: CI 0.674-1.825].
The group of patients with fall showed, on average, a statistically higher heart rate (79.8 min) than the control group of patients without fall (77.9 min), p = 0.015. The group of patients with fall showed a statistically significantly higher glycaemia level (7.1 mmol/l) than the control group of patients without fall (6.2 mmol/l), p = 0.001.
The patients with fall had a lower average value of haemoglobin (120.8 g/l) than the patients without fall (122.3 g/l). The patients with fall had statistically significantly lower values of K (4.2 mmol/l) and Cl (102.1 mmol/l) than the control group of patients without fall (K 4.7 mmol/l, p = 0.002) and (Cl 103.1 mmol/l, p = 0.026).
Conclusion: The results show that the monitoring of BMI,blood pressure, haematological and biochemical blood examinations constitutes an integral part of the program of prevention of falls of hospitalized patients.