Cargando…

The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls

BACKGROUND: The incidence of falls in the elderly population is difficult to determine and therefore potentially underestimated. Screening algorithms usually have in common that the evaluation is undertaken by trained individuals in a hospital setting. This leads to the inclusion of a high proportio...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pape, Hans-Christoph, Schemmann, Ulrike, Foerster, Juergen, Knobe, Matthias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4328308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25685196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13037-014-0055-0
_version_ 1782357230899691520
author Pape, Hans-Christoph
Schemmann, Ulrike
Foerster, Juergen
Knobe, Matthias
author_facet Pape, Hans-Christoph
Schemmann, Ulrike
Foerster, Juergen
Knobe, Matthias
author_sort Pape, Hans-Christoph
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The incidence of falls in the elderly population is difficult to determine and therefore potentially underestimated. Screening algorithms usually have in common that the evaluation is undertaken by trained individuals in a hospital setting. This leads to the inclusion of a high proportion of low-risk people and a waste of resources. It would be advantageous to pretest the individuals at risk in their own environment using a simple self-assessment approach. METHODS: The consensus process of our group of clinicians and physical therapists included: 1. a preparative literature review about risk profiles and assessment tools for ground level falls; 2. a selection of appropriate questions that cover all health aspects involved in an increased risk for falling; and 3. a selection of a simple physical test that can be used at home without the need of a health care professional. We thus searched to develop a scale that can be used by older citizen at higher risk of falling. The current manuscript summarizes the results of this review, consensus and selection process. RESULTS: The literature search was undertaken between March and August 1, 2013. The selection process for the questions used (Part I) lasted between March 2013 and January 2014. Among all tests evaluated the 20 second standing test (Part II) was deemed to be safe to be performed even by an individual at risk for a fall, as it closely resembles activities of daily living. The `Aachen Falls Prevention Scale` finally uses a self-assessment tool grading falls risk on a scale of 1 to 10 by the individual itself after completion of Part I and Part II. In summary, we present a scale that might offer a self-assessment option to improve the measures of falls prevention pass for elderly citizens. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of the `Aachen Falls Prevention Scale` which combines a simple questionnaire with a safe and quick balance tool, meets the criteria to identify whether or not a balance problem exists – the first step in evaluation of falls risk. Further studies will have to assess the ability of an individual to estimate his or her individual falls risk on a longitudinal basis and possibly trigger the necessity for the assessment by a physician.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4328308
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-43283082015-02-15 The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls Pape, Hans-Christoph Schemmann, Ulrike Foerster, Juergen Knobe, Matthias Patient Saf Surg Research BACKGROUND: The incidence of falls in the elderly population is difficult to determine and therefore potentially underestimated. Screening algorithms usually have in common that the evaluation is undertaken by trained individuals in a hospital setting. This leads to the inclusion of a high proportion of low-risk people and a waste of resources. It would be advantageous to pretest the individuals at risk in their own environment using a simple self-assessment approach. METHODS: The consensus process of our group of clinicians and physical therapists included: 1. a preparative literature review about risk profiles and assessment tools for ground level falls; 2. a selection of appropriate questions that cover all health aspects involved in an increased risk for falling; and 3. a selection of a simple physical test that can be used at home without the need of a health care professional. We thus searched to develop a scale that can be used by older citizen at higher risk of falling. The current manuscript summarizes the results of this review, consensus and selection process. RESULTS: The literature search was undertaken between March and August 1, 2013. The selection process for the questions used (Part I) lasted between March 2013 and January 2014. Among all tests evaluated the 20 second standing test (Part II) was deemed to be safe to be performed even by an individual at risk for a fall, as it closely resembles activities of daily living. The `Aachen Falls Prevention Scale` finally uses a self-assessment tool grading falls risk on a scale of 1 to 10 by the individual itself after completion of Part I and Part II. In summary, we present a scale that might offer a self-assessment option to improve the measures of falls prevention pass for elderly citizens. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of the `Aachen Falls Prevention Scale` which combines a simple questionnaire with a safe and quick balance tool, meets the criteria to identify whether or not a balance problem exists – the first step in evaluation of falls risk. Further studies will have to assess the ability of an individual to estimate his or her individual falls risk on a longitudinal basis and possibly trigger the necessity for the assessment by a physician. BioMed Central 2015-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4328308/ /pubmed/25685196 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13037-014-0055-0 Text en © Pape et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Pape, Hans-Christoph
Schemmann, Ulrike
Foerster, Juergen
Knobe, Matthias
The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title_full The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title_fullStr The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title_short The ‘Aachen Falls Prevention Scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
title_sort ‘aachen falls prevention scale’ - development of a tool for self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4328308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25685196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13037-014-0055-0
work_keys_str_mv AT papehanschristoph theaachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT schemmannulrike theaachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT foersterjuergen theaachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT knobematthias theaachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT papehanschristoph aachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT schemmannulrike aachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT foersterjuergen aachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls
AT knobematthias aachenfallspreventionscaledevelopmentofatoolforselfassessmentofelderlypatientsatriskforgroundlevelfalls