Fall prevention at home among elderly people: A Nursing assistive approach : A Literature Review

Abstract

The incidence of falls, fall related injuries as well as fall associated cost will continue to rise due to the increase in the ageing population. However, falls among elderly people can be reduced or prevented through multi-factorial assessment tools and multi-factorial preventive strategies. These strategies vary depending on the cause or risk factors that caused it. Elderly people identified to be at high risk should be assessed and screened by trained personnel’s. The aim of the study is to research on risk factors for falls among elderly people at home. Alongside the risk factors, the study also aims at finding possible interventions to prevent or reduce falls at home. The study presents a review of selected articles through inclusion criteria. Qualitative literature review was used and inductive content analysis was employed to analyze selected articles and the findings were categorized into the main and sub categories. The Grace Care Model was used. This theory enables the author to achieve the objectives of the study. The study recommends nurses and health workers to consider well established assessment procedure like fall history, medication review, check for traces of cardiovascular or neurological illness, incontinence , vision, postural blood pressure , balance and gait, thorough bone examination to examine osteoporosis risk, assessment of Vitamin D and Calcium intake before any preventive strategy is considered. The study present preventive fall strategies from the risk factor point of view. They were categorized under four headings as follows physical exercise, home environment, medication and education.