title: The validity of three fall risk screening tools in an acute geriatric inpatient population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the validity of the Ontario Modified STRATIFY (OM) (St Thomas's Risk Assessment Tool in Falling Elderly Inpatients), The Northern Hospital Modified STRATIFY (TNH) and STRATIFY in predicting falls in an acute aged care unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected prospectively from 217 people presenting consecutively and falls identified during hospitalisation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivities of OM (80.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 58.4 to 91.9%), TNH (85, CI 64.0 to 94.8%) and STRATIFY (80.0, CI 58.4 to 91.0%) were similar. The STRATIFY had higher specificity (61.4, CI 54.5 to 67.9%) than OM (37.1, CI 30.6 to 44.0%) and TNH (51.3, CI 44.3 to 58.2%). Accuracy (percentage of patients correctly classified as 'faller' or 'non-faller') was higher using STRATIFY (63.1, CI 56.5 to 69.3%) and TNH (54.4, CI 47.8 to 61.0%) than with OM (41.0, CI 34.7 to 47.7%, P < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Screening tools have limited accuracy in identifying patients at high risk of falls.
authors.affiliation: Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Mark.Latt@email.cs.nsw.gov.au.|Department of Geriatric Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Mark.Latt@email.cs.nsw.gov.au.
authors.forename: Mark Dominic
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Latt
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: K Florence
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.affiliation: Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Ludi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Department of Aged Chronic Care and Rehabilitation, Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hepworth
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019540:Area Under Curve; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: accidental falls; aged; hospitals; sensitivity; specificity