Sigitas Griškonis, Birutė Strukčinskienė, Juozas Raistenskis, Vaiva Strukčinskaitė, Ieva Griškonytė
Abstract
The survey on elderly people (65 plus) that have to be treated for a fall injury in Lithuania hospitals. In the survey 312 elderly participated. Chi-square test was used and the significance level p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study revealed that the majority of fall injury inpatients were women. Almost all inpatients (95%) were treated because of fracture. 89.1% proc. of falls happened inside, the majority of them occurred at home. 28% of fall injuries occurred in the room, 21% – in the bathroom, 19% – in the corridor, 14% – on stairs, and 13% – in the kitchen. Most often elderly were injured when have fallen in the morning or in the evening. 24% respondents have fallen because of obstacle/ barrier, 23% elderly slipped on the wet, slippery floor, 20% – because of the imbalance when walking. 83% of elderly permanently use medications, 62% of them have visual impairments, 72% – musculoskeletal problems, 41% – hearing problems. 71% of surveyed elderly have not heard or are not interested in falls prevention. Women significantly more are interested in falls prevention than men. Most of the knowledge about injures and fall prevention elderly obtain from the media and medical or health specialists. 42% of elderly go for a walk, and 19.1% of elderly people exercise regularly.
doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2013.066
Keyword(s): elderly, injury, falls, injury prevention
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2013.066
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