Understanding older adults' perceptions of hospital falls: Confidence, fear, consequences, and help-seeking intentions.

Abstract

Aim: Aim of the paper is to determine the relationship between patients' perceived risk of falling and their fall-risk assessment ranking.

Design: A cross-sectional correlational design.

Methods: Four questionnaires: confidence, fear, consequence and intention related to falls were administered to 54 hospitalized older adults. Fall-ranking scores were also collected on each participant as well as demographic information.

Results: There was no significant relationship between fall assessment ranking and patients' perceived risk of falling. Significant relationships were observed between the patient's perceptions of fall risk scales: fear of falling, confidence, consequences, and intention. Intention to ask for help is higher in those with no prior falls. Age and Sex were not significant related to patient perceptions and did not interact with perceived risk in predicting fall assessment ranking.

Conclusion: Hospitalized older adults identified as a high fall risk were not more likely to view themselves as being at higher risk for falls. Those with a history of having fallen had lower intention to ask for help when getting up, which is the opposite of what might be expected. This highlights the need to better align patient perceptions related to their fall potential while hospitalized.

Implications: Falls in older adults remains a top public health issue, and this study reinforces the disconnect between self-perceived fall risk and nurse ratings of fall risk. There also remains few relationships between actual history of falls and self-perceived risk of falling except those with a history of falling have lower intentions for asking for help. To prevent patient falls, we must develop customized interventions to help patients better understand their risk of falling and how to prevent them.