Citation

Adly NN, Abd-El-Gawad WM, Abou-Hashem RM. Aging Clin. Exp. Res. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Geriatrics and Gerontology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. raniaabouhashem@med.asu.edu.eg.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s40520-019-01309-0

PMID

31482296

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite decades of research evaluating different predictive strategies to identify persons at risk for falls, nutritional issues have received little attention. Malnutrition leads to weight loss associated with muscle weakness and consequently increases the risk of falls. AIMS: The current study assessed the association between nutritional state and fall risk scores in a geriatric in-patient unit in Ain Shams University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional state of 190 older inpatients using a short form of the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF), and the risk of falls was assessed using the Morse Fall Scale (MFS), Johns Hopkins fall risk assessment tool (JH-FRAT), Schmid Fall Risk Assessment Tool (Schmid-FRAT), Hendrich II Fall Risk Model (HII-FRM) and Functional Assessment Instrument (FAI). The generalised linear models (GLM) and odds ratio (OR) were calculated to test the nutritional status as a risk factor for falls.

RESULTS: Malnutrition was significantly associated with high fall risk as assessed by MFS and HII-FRM (OR = 2.833, 95% CI 1.358-5.913, P = 0.006; OR = 3.477, 95% CI 1.822-6.636, P < 0.001), with the highest OR for JH-FRAT (OR = 5.455, 95% CI 1.548-19.214, P = 0.008). After adjusting for age, the adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (ACCI), number of fall risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs), risk of malnutrition or malnourished were significantly associated with high fall risk as assessed by MFS (OR = 2.761, 95% CI 1.306-5.836, P = 0.008), JH-FRAT (OR = 4.938, 95% CI 1.368-17.828, P = 0.015), and HII-FRM (OR = 3.486, 95% CI 1.783-6.815, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated a significant association between malnutrition and fall risk assessment scores, especially JH-FRAT, in hospitalised older patients.

Language: en

Keywords

Fall risk assessment tools; Hospitalised older patients; Malnutrition; Nutritional state