title: Fall risk assessment: retrospective analysis of Morse Fall Scale scores in Portuguese hospitalized adult patients.
abstract: The Morse Fall Scale is used in several care settings for fall risk assessment and supports the implementation of preventive nursing interventions. Our work aims to analyze the Morse Fall Scale scores of Portuguese hospitalized adult patients in association with their characteristics, diagnoses and length of stay.
  
  
  
  Retrospective cohort analysis of Morse Fall Scale scores of 8356 patients hospitalized during 2012. Data were associated to age, gender, type of admission, specialty units, length of stay, patient discharge, and ICD-9 diagnosis.
  
  
  
  Elderly patients, female, with emergency service admission, at medical units and/or with longer length of stays were more frequently included in the risk group for falls. ICD-9 diagnosis may also be an important risk factor.
  
  
  
  More than a half of hospitalized patients had "medium" to "high" risk of falling during the length of stay, which determines the implementation and maintenance of protocoled preventive nursing interventions throughout hospitalization. There are several fall risk factors not assessed by Morse Fall Scale. There were no statistical differences in Morse Fall Scale score between the first and the last assessment.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; Centro Hospitalar do Baixo Vouga, EPE, Aveiro Hospital, Aveiro, Portugal; Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Oporto, Oporto, Portugal. Electronic address: pedro.sardo@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Pedro Miguel Garcez
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Sardo
authors.affiliation: QOPNA, Chemistry Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: claudiasimoes@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Cláudia Sofia Oliveira
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: jalvarelhao@ua.pt.
authors.forename: José Joaquim Marques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Alvarelhão
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: jflindo@ua.pt.
authors.forename: João Filipe Fernandes Lindo
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: elsamelo@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Elsa Maria de Oliveira Pinheiro de
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Melo
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay; D011174:Portugal; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Accidental falls; Hospitalization; International Classification of Diseases; Nursing assessment; Risk assessment