title: Fall-Related Injuries in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Qom Province, Iran, 2010-2012.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Falls and related injuries are common health problems in the elderly. Fractures, brain and internal organ injuries and death are the common consequences of the falls, which result in dependence, decreased self-efficacy, fear of falling, depression, restricted daily activities, hospitalization and admission to the nursing home and impose costs on the individual and the society.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the types of fall-related injuries and the related risk factors in the elderly population of Qom province, Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study was performed on 424 elderly people (65 years and over) referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Qom, Iran, due to falls between 2010 and 2012. The ICD-10 codes of external causes of injury from w00 to w19 related to falls were selected from the health information system of the hospital and demographic variables of the patients and external causes of falls were extracted after accessing the files of the patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 18 (SPSS Inc., USA). The duration of hospital stay and its relationship with underlying variables were investigated using t test and ANOVA. The level of significance was considered P < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 424 elderly people, 180 cases (42.45%) were male and the mean age of the patients was 78.65 ± 7.70 years. Fall on the same level from slipping, tripping, and stumbling was the most common external cause with 291 victims (68.60%), and hip fracture in 121 patients (29.00%), intertrochanteric fracture in 112 patients (26.90%), and traumatic brain injury in 51 patients (12.20%) were the most common causes of hospital stay. The mean hospital stay was 7.33 ± 3.63 days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower limb fracture and traumatic brain injury were the most common causes of hospitalization, which resulted in the longest hospital stay and highest hospitalization costs in the elderly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Gilasi
authors.affiliation: Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soori
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Education, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Parisa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taheri Tenjani
keywords: Elderly; Hospitalization; Injury; Length of Stay