Frequency of falls and contributing factors in hospitalized patients with severe mental disorders

Introduction: Psychiatric patients have a higher rate of falls even in the hospital setting compared to other patients; falls are a safety concern because of the negative consequences for health and quality of life. Methods: descriptive, retrospective study. A total of 162 clinical records of patients who fell during hospitalization were analyzed. Factors for falls were classified as intrinsic and extrinsic. Frequency and percentages of qualitative variables were calculated and the U-Mann Whitney test was used to compare means of qualitative variables. A logistic regression model was constructed. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 26 statistical software. Results: The frequency of falls was higher in women (n=110) with a rate of 5.4 falls per 1000 hospital days. 27.2% had more than two falls and 67.3% of patients were injured when falling (6.2% serious). In 30.9%, the adverse effect of psychotropic drugs was identified as the probable cause of the fall. Some of the predictors of falls that showed a significant difference were: cognitive impairment (ExpB=2.59), female sex (ExpB=6.41) and night shift (ExpB=1.16). Conclusions: We identified that the variables female sex, cognitive impairment (intrinsic factors) and night shift (extrinsic factor) explain the higher probability of falling during hospitalization. We consider that cognitive assessment should be included to identify the risk of falling and reduce the staffing deficit in the night shift.