Comparison of fall risk and risk factors between inpatients aged under 65 years and above in an internal medicine clinic

Aim: The aim of this study is to retrospectively evaluate and compare fall risk and risk factors inpatients aged under 65 years and above in an internal medicine clinic. Materials and Methods: The study is retrospective and descriptive. The study included 224 patients who were hospitalized for any complaint in the internal medicine clinic of a university hospital between June 2019 and August 2019, and whose data on falls were fully recorded. The sociodemographic variables of the patients, chronic diseases, the number of drugs and the number of risky drugs for falls, and the data of the Itaki fall risk scale were recorded. Results: The mean age of the patients was 63.18 ± 17.66 (23-95) years. A statistically significant difference was found between inpatients aged under 65 years and above in terms of itaki fall risk score, number of chronic diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, neurological diseases and number of drugs, number of risky drugs, antidiabetic and antiarrhythmic drugs. A statistically significant difference was found between inpatients aged under 65 years and above in terms of fall risk according to the Itaki fall risk scale (p = 0.038). A statistically significant difference was found between inpatients aged under 65 years and above with a high risk of falling in terms of the number of chronic diseases (p = 0.001), presence of diabetes mellitus (p = 0.007), presence of hypertension (p = 0.001), presence of heart disease (p = 0.002), presence of neurological disease (p = 0.03), and number of risky drugs (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Falls are an important problem in all age groups. Although fall risk is higher inpatients aged 65 years and above, care should be taken in terms of precautions to be taken to prevent falls in all patients. All risk factors associated with falls should be questioned in all hospitalized patients