{"id":391,"date":"2024-01-30T12:22:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T12:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/risk-factors\/"},"modified":"2024-02-27T10:13:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:13:56","slug":"risk-factors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/risk-factors\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk Factors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hospital inpatients, particularly older people are at an increased risk of falls and illness can lead to increased confusion and unsteadiness.&nbsp; A fall in hospital may be the first sign that a patient has deteriorated.&nbsp; Younger patients may be at risk of falling during their hospital stay e.g. when under effects of anaesthesia or medication. &nbsp;Additional risk factors are included in the table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-flexible-table-block-table is-scroll-on-mobile\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:none\"><thead><tr><th>Risk Factor<\/th><th>Example\/Link<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Acute illness<\/td><td>e.g. shortness of breath, fatigue, fracture, anaesthesia, analgesia. All factors impact upon falls risk and must be considered when making a clinical judgement of risk of falls.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>History of previous falls<\/td><td>e.g. previous admissions with fall or fracture<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cognitive impairment<\/td><td>e.g delirium (acute confusion)&nbsp;or dementia <a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/ThinkDeliriumPoster.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Think Delirium Information Poster<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Urinary incontinence<\/td><td>e.g urinary frequency Adult bladder and bowel Nursing Team (info on Intranet)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Orthostatic-Hypotension-3.doc\">Postural hypotension<\/a> (Low Blood Pressure when lying down)<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Orthostatic-Hypotension-3.doc\">Postural hypotension<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Unsteadiness or manner of walking\/gait problem from any cause<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Medicine-Information-Sheet.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Polypharmacy&nbsp;<\/a>(taking 4 or more drugs) especially psychotropics\/sedatives<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Medicine-Information-Sheet.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Drugs that may increase the risk of falls information<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Inappropriate&nbsp;Footwear&nbsp;or foot problems<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Footwear-Guidance.docx\">Footwear<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Lower limb weakness or joint disease<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cardiac disease<\/td><td>e.g. arrhythmia or aortic stenosis if syncope is suspected<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Neurological disease<\/td><td>e.g. Stroke, Parkinson\u2019s peripheral neuropathy <a href=\"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2024\/02\/Parkinsons-Falls-and-PD.pdf\">Parkinson\u2019s UK Information<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Visual impairment<\/td><td>e.g. cataracts, macular degeneration, poor glasses<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Age&gt;75<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Acute and chronic conditions can also increase a person\u2019s falls risk and should be considered when making a clinical judgement about a person\u2019s risk of falls when in hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hospital inpatients, particularly older people are at an increased risk of falls and illness can lead to increased confusion and unsteadiness.&nbsp; A fall in hospital may be the first sign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":25,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/widewidth.php","meta":{"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-391","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"davidmcbain","author_link":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/author\/davidmcbain\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":false,"rttpg_excerpt":"Hospital inpatients, particularly older people are at an increased risk of falls and illness can lead to increased confusion and unsteadiness.&nbsp; A fall in hospital may be the first sign","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/391\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staff.nhslothian.scot\/falls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}