title: Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Fall Injuries in East Azerbaijan, Iran; A Cross-Sectional Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of fall injuries in East Azerbaijan, Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was based on Hospital Information System (HIS) data for patients referred to the Imam Reza Hospital between 2008 and 2013. We recorded the demographic characteristics and epidemiological patterns of patients who were admitted to our center due to fall injuries. To standardize the reports the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the International Classification of Diseases 9 Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) was used. Equally, the hospitalization period and number, admission ward, and the final status of victims after discharge from the hospital were extracted from the HIS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall we included a total number of 3397 patients with mean age of 39.2±22.7 years. There were 2501 (73.6%) men among the patients. Long bone fracture (48.1%) and intracranial injury (24.2%) were the most frequent injuries among fall injury victims. Operations on spinal cord and spinal canal structures (12.0%), Operations on nose (11.6%) were the most common operations being performed in these patients. The survival was significantly lower in patients with age more than 60 years when compared to other age groups (p=0.001). The survival rate was significantly lower in age group of >60 years, compared to other age groups (p=0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the high rate of fall injuries and death among the elderly that increases with age, appropriate measures must be taken to control and prevent injuries while prioritizing the elderly.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing of Miandoab, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghaffari-Fam
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Student Research Committee, School of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences,Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sarbazi
authors.affiliation: Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daemi
authors.affiliation: Ilam University, Ilam, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohamadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarbazi
authors.affiliation: Ilam University, Ilam, Iran.
authors.forename: Lachin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Riyazi
authors.affiliation: Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Homayoun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sadeghi-Bazargani
authors.affiliation: Imam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Allahyari
keywords: Epidemiology; Fall injury; Iran; Mortality; Traumatic brain injury