Epidemiology of falling in elderly patients hospitalized in Razi Hospital in Rasht

Background: Aging and hospitalization increase the likelihood of falling from bed. Falling increases the length of hospitalization and cost of treatment. Objectives: Investigation the rate of falling of the elderly hospitalized patients.Methods & Materials: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Razi academic hospital in the north of Iran from 2017 to 2018. All information were documented in a checklist. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 22). Mean and percent were used to describe the data. Chi-square and Fischer s exact test were also used).Result: Of 62 falls, 48.3% (n=30) were among the elderly. Sixty-percent were men (mean age 73 ± 9 y). Most fallings occurred in Emergency Department and Endocrine Ward. 66% of falls occurred in the night shift. 30% of case were who other than leaving the bed or going to toilet (30%). 70% of falls resulted in injuries. Most of them were visited by the physician immediately after the fall, and for 63% of them radiological and laboratory tests were performed. The relationship between the light of room and type of falling was significant (p= 0.02).Conclusion: Most of the falls of hospitalized patients of our study occurred in the emergency ward in the night shift. Most of fallings resulted in injuries. So more attention to this unit is needed in hospital policies. To apply the results of researches in clinical practice, a more complete form was designed to record falling from the bed in our hospital