Prevalência de internações por quedas em idosos em um hospital no Sertão paraibano.

Abstract

Falls, which are considered a geriatric syndrome, can bring serious physical, emotional and social consequences for the elderly. Due to its high frequency of occurrence and loss to the quality of life of the elderly, they indicate a public health problem. This is an exploratory and descriptive study with a quantitative approach using documentary database that aims to determine the prevalence of hospitalizations for falls involving elderly people in the Regional Hospital of Cajazeiras - PB. The study population consisted of 197 records elderly people who were admitted to the Regional Hospital of Cajazeiras - PB because of falls and the sample of (197) 100% of records the elderly. The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under the report number 38958214.1.0000.5181490. We analyzed 490 medical records of elderly patients hospitalized for trauma to the RHC, from January 2011 to December 2014, from those a total of 197 hospitalizations of elderly people were due to injuries from falls, corresponding to a prevalence of 40.2% during that period . Ages ranged from 60 to 100 years old or older, with na average of 74.1 (SD = 9.9) years, and the range with greater distribution was from 60 to 70 years old with 43.7%. As to gender, 63% of the elderly were female and 37% male. The most common type of fall was the fall from their own height with 84.3%, and 15.7% corresponded to other types of falls. Regarding the main reason for admission 69.6% required surgical procedures, 27.9% had risks of complications of the injury and 2.5% for presenting pain, swelling and limitation of movement. For the most frequent fractures 21.3% corresponded to the forearm bones fracture, 17.3% to wrist fractures and 14.7% transtrochanteric femoral fractures. It was noticed that 97% of the elderly underwent a surgical procedure with an average of 1.03. And only 3% did not require surgical intervention. The hospital stay ranged from one to thirty-three days, from which seven days of stay was the average. Thus, this research confirms the predisposing factors and disorders resulting from falling by elderly people pointed in previous studies, and highlights the importance of implementing health promotion measures in primary care and prevention of these falls, through the strategic role of a multidisciplinary team, especially nurses, in order to reduce the risks of falls in this group.