Abstract
In geriatric medicine, fall is a very important problem as well as dementia, being bedridden and incontinence. The serious damage such as fracture and subdural hematoma sometimes follows fall and brings about being bedridden. Being bedridden is also a risk factor of dementia. This condition needs great care and medical treatment. Therefore, the prevention against fall is a very essential problem in geriatric medicine. We investigated the actual situation of fall in several psychiatric hospitals in this study paying attention to age, posture and place in falling. At a result,the occurrence ratio of serious damage brought about by fall is about 16.5% in one hospital and about 4.5% in another hospital. These results are comparable to preceding investigations. The factors of place and posture in falling have no relationship with this occurrence ratio. Aging has been found to be the factor reducing this ratio. This result fell short of our expectations. Generally speaking, aging is thought to be a risk factor of fall. In many hospitals, many measures have been taken against fall, especially for elderly patients recently. Our results may be caused by these measures. It would be thought that places in fall should be classified into various categories according to materials of the floor.
