Characteristics of elderly patients attended in an emergency room due to falls

Descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study performed at a hospital emergency room. The data was collected in November 2017, considering the medical records of 1.460 elderly patients, with a registry related to fall as the main complain. A descriptive analysis of the data was performed.

RESULTS

The main results show that most elders were female (66.92%), older than 80 years old (27.27%), single (41.37%), and hypertensive (78.79%). Falls from ground level comprised 88.56% and their main consequence was trauma (55.65%). 66.30% were discharged after consultation.

CONCLUSION

The characteristics of the elderly were: female, age above 80 years old, single, and hypertensive. The most frequent type of fall was from ground level, traumas were the main consequences and the discharge after consulting the most common outcome.

Keywords:
Accidentals falls; Health of the elderly; Emergency medical services

Features	n	%
Gender
Female	977	66.92
Male	483	33.08
Age (years)
60 to 64	341	23.34
65 to 69	292	20.01
70 to 74	222	15.20
75 to 79	207	14.18
80 years or more	398	27.27
Marital status
Single	604	41.37
Married/Stable union	502	34.38
Widower	275	18.84
Divorced/Separated	79	5.41

Consequence of the fall	n	%
Trauma	754	55.65
Fracture of extremities	185	13.65
Mild traumatic brain injury	169	12.47
Hip fracture	146	10.77
Column fracture	29	2.14
Pain	20	1.48
Moderate TBI	18	1.33
Rib fracture	14	1.03
Head and neck fracture	12	0.89
Severe TBI	8	0.59
Total	1.460	100

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Escola de Enfermagem Rua São Manoel, 963 -Campus da Saúde , 90.620-110 - Porto Alegre - RS - Brasil, Fone: (55 51) 3308-5242 / Fax: (55 51) 3308-5436 - Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil
E-mail: revista@enf.ufrgs.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] Corresponding author:
Flávia Sampaio Latini Gomes. latiniflavia@gmail.com