title: Factors associated with falls in hospitalized adult patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite efforts in hospitals to identify patients at risk for falls and to prevent these incidents, falls among hospitalized patients are not a rare event and continue to be a major health care concern, occurring in approximately 700,000-1,000,000 hospitalized patients per year.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to examine intrinsic, extrinsic, and workforce factors that contribute to falls among hospitalized adult patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective correlational design was used to examine 160 patients admitted to a medical-surgical unit over the year 2012. Analytical weighting was applied to the study sample to conduct bivariate and multivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In multivariate analysis, the variables age, narcotic/sedative use, and overnight shift, significantly predicted the likelihood of a fall during the hospitalization. Cardiovascular disease, neuromusculoskeletal disease, evening shift, the implementation of fall prevention strategies and higher RN to unlicensed assistive personnel staffing ratios decreased the likelihood of a fall during the hospitalization. In addition, patients at high risk for falls using the Hendrich I fall scale were nearly 17% more likely to fall during the hospitalization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many factors influence the occurrence of a fall in hospitalized patients. Fall risk assessment and the implementation of fall prevention strategies are both effective strategies in the clinical area to identify and decrease the probability of a fall. The presence of the RN is significant in fall prevention in medical-surgical patients.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University School of Nursing, 180 University Ave. Newark NJ, 07102 USA; Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, NJ, 07631 USA. Electronic address: jillm.cox@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University School of Nursing, 180 University Ave. Newark NJ, 07102 USA. Electronic address: charlot@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thomas-Hawkins
authors.affiliation: Faculty Services, Rutgers University School of Nursing, 180 University Ave., Newark NJ, 07102 USA. Electronic address: pajarill@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Edmund
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pajarillo
authors.affiliation: Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Englewood, NJ, 07631 USA. Electronic address: susan.degennaro@ehmc.com.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: DeGennaro
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University School of Nursing, 180 University Ave. Newark NJ, 07102 USA. Electronic address: ednacadm@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Edna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cadmus
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University School of Nursing, 180 University Ave. Newark NJ, 07102 USA. Electronic address: Miguel.martinez1@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinez
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male
keywords: Falls; Hospitalized adults; Risk factors