Clinical trauma severity of indoor and outdoor injurious falls requiring emergency medical service response.

Abstract

Background: Injurious falls represent a significant public health burden. Research and policies have primarily focused on falls occurring indoors despite evidence that outdoor falls account for 47-58% of all falls requiring some medical attention. This study described the clinical trauma severity of indoor versus outdoor injurious falls requiring Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response.

Methods: Using the 2019 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) dataset, we identified the location of patients injured from falls that required EMS response. We classified injury severity using (1) the Revised Trauma Score for Triage (T-RTS): ≤ 11 indicated the need for transport to a Trauma Center; (2) Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS): ≤ 8 and 9-12 indicated severe and moderate neurologic injury; and (3) patient clinical acuity by EMS: Dead, Critical, Emergent, Low.

Results: Of 1,854,909 encounters for patients with injurious falls, the vast majority occurred indoors (n = 1,596,860) compared to outdoors (n = 152,994). For patients who fell indoors vs outdoors on streets or sidewalks, the proportions were comparable for moderate or severe GCS scores (3.0% vs 3.9%), T-RTS scores indicating need for transport to a Trauma Center (5.2% vs 5.9%) and EMS acuity rated as Emergent or Critical (27.7% vs 27.1%). Injurious falls were more severe among male patients compared to females and males injured by falling on streets or sidewalks had higher percentages for moderate or severe GCS scores (5.2% vs 1.9%) and T-RTS scores indicating the need for transport to a Trauma Center (7.3% vs 3.9%) compared to falling indoors. Young and middle-aged patients who fell on streets or sidewalks had higher proportions for a T-RTS score indicating the need for Trauma Center care compared to those in this subgroup who fell indoors. Yet older patients injured by falling indoors were more likely to have a T-RTS score indicating the need for transport to a Trauma Center than older patients who fell on streets or sidewalks.

Conclusions: There was a similar proportion of patients with severe injurious falls that occurred indoors and outdoors on streets or sidewalks. These findings suggest the need to determine outdoor environmental risks for outdoor falls to support location-specific interventions.