Fall-Related Hospitalizations in Elderly People: Temporal Trend and Spatial Distribution in Brazil

This study aims to identify the temporal variation and the spatial dependence structure of the hospitalization rate for falls in the elderly residing in Brazil in the period between 2010 and 2021. This ecological study employs secondary data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health about the fall-related hospitalization of people aged 60 years old and over. A time-series analysis was carried out, employing the joinpoint model. For the spatial analysis, the Moran autocorrelation technique was employed. In Brazil, between 2010 and 2021, there were 1,270,341 hospitalizations for falls recorded among the elderly in the Brazilian Hospitalization System. There was a continuous upward trend between 2010 and 2019 for all age groups, female and male, and all Brazilian regions. The trend stabilized between 2019 to 2021. The North and Northeast regions had faster upward trends among all Brazilian regions, and there was also a faster upward trend among women compared to men. A high-high pattern in hospitalization incidence was noticed from 2011 to 2019 in the states of São Paulo, Minhas Gerais, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul. The results of this study provide subsidies for Brazilian health authorities to implement more efficient public policies to improve the quality of life of elderly people.