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Risk of Falls in Patients Aged Over 65 in the Context of the Treatment Facility

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Integrative Clinical Research

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((CLEXBI,volume 1375))

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Abstract

This study assessed the risk of falls, the incidence of frailty, cognition, and nutritional status in people aged over 65 in the context of the treatment facility. To this end, we compared a group of 99 non-hospitalized patients treated in primary healthcare facilities with a group of 100 patients hospitalized in a geriatric ward. It was a survey-type study based on the following questionnaires: Mini-Mental State Examination, Tilburg Frailty Indicator, Mini Nutritional Assessment, and the Tinetti Balance and Gait Assessment. We found significant differences between non-hospitalized and hospitalized patients to the advantage of the former. A risk of falls was 56.6% vs. 85% (p < 0.001), the incidence of frailty was 51% vs. 71% (p = 0.005), and cognitive decline was 35% vs. 61% (p = 0.120), respectively. Additionally, nutritional detriment also was less expressed in outpatients. A distinctly worse overall health performance, with increased risk of falls, was confirmed in multifactorial regression analysis in hospitalized patients. We conclude that geriatric hospital setting is an independent risk factor aggravating the risk of falls, frailty, and cognitive weakness in senior persons.

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this study.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study protocol was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Wroclaw Medical University in Wroclaw, Poland.

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland

    Mariola Seń, Luba Jakubowska, Agnieszka Lintowska & Barbara Grabowska

  2. Department of Organization and Management, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland

    Piotr Karniej

  3. Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland

    Beata Jankowska-Polańska

Authors
  1. Mariola Seń
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  2. Luba Jakubowska
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  3. Agnieszka Lintowska
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  4. Piotr Karniej
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  5. Barbara Grabowska
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  6. Beata Jankowska-Polańska
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luba Jakubowska .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Health Sciences, Opole University, Opole, Poland

    Mieczyslaw Pokorski

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Seń, M., Jakubowska, L., Lintowska, A., Karniej, P., Grabowska, B., Jankowska-Polańska, B. (2021). Risk of Falls in Patients Aged Over 65 in the Context of the Treatment Facility. In: Pokorski, M. (eds) Integrative Clinical Research. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 1375. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2021_651

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