A study on elderly patients transported due to self-fall

Abstract

Elderly people account for most of the patients transported by ambulance, and among them, there are many self-fall patients, which is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of ambulance transportation. In this study, we examined the background and the prognosis of elderly patients transported due to self-fall. The subjects were elderly self-fall patients who were transported to our hospital by ambulance from January 1 to June 30, 2022. Older patients aged 65 years or older were considered elderly, and falls without obvious external force were considered self-falls. A medical record survey was performed and examined retrospectively. There were 370 patients, median age 80.0 (74-86), 158 males, 24 (6.5%) bleeding requiring hemostasis without fracture and 141 (38.1%) fractures. Of the 106 (28.7%) hospitalized patients, 37 (10.0%) still required hospitalization on day 21 of admission, but there were no deaths. Compared to the outpatient group, the inpatient group took polypharmacy (5 or more drugs) (62.3% vs. 21.7%, p=0.029). Age, sex and alcohol did not contribute to hospitalization. Approximately 30% of elderly patients due to self-fall are hospitalized and it is considered important to prevent falls by adjustment of oral medications and so on.