Validation of Fall Risk Assessment Scales among Hospitalized Patients in South Korea using Retrospective Data Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to validate fall risk assessment scales among hospitalized adult patients in South Korea using the electronic medical records by comparing sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values of Morse Fall Scale (MFS), Bobath Memorial Hospital Fall Risk Assessment Scale (BMFRAS), and Johns Hopkins Hospital Fall Risk Assessment tool (JHFRAT). Methods: A total of 120 patients who experienced fall episodes during their hospitalization from June 2010 to December 2013 was categorized into the fall group. Another 120 patients, who didn't experience fall episodes with age, sex, clinical departments, and the type of wards matched with the fall group, were categorized to the comparison group. Data were analyzed for the comparisons of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and the area under the curve of the three tools. Results: MFS at a cutoff score of 48 had .806 for ROC curves, 76.7% for sensitivity, 77.5% for specificity, 77.3% for positive predictive value, and 76.9% for negative predictive value, which were the highest values among the three fall assessment scales. Conclusion: The MFS with the highest score and the highest discrimination was evaluated to be suitable and reasonable for predicting falls of inpatients in med-surg units of university hospitals.

Validity of the Morse Fall Scale and the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool for fall risk assessment in an acute care setting

“…All analyses were conducted at a significance level (alpha) of .05. Propensity score was used to match the non‐fall group to the fall group, and a total of four covariates were included: age, sex, diagnostic department and hospitalisation period (Kang & Song, 2015; Kim et al, 2011). This analysis method has been reported to reduce selection bias in retrospective studies where randomisation was not possible (NCSS statistical Software, 2016).…”

“…Severity related to fall risk generally includes mental and emotional instability as a considerable variable (Kang & Song, 2015; Matarese et al, 2015). Among retrospective data, information of the main characteristics related to falls could be obtained from the patient classification system based on nursing care needs, and it consists of physical, mental and emotional categories (Song et al, 2018).…”

Risk factors of falls among inpatients with cancer

“…The type of cancer, presence of metastasis, use of an assistive device (walkers, wheel chairs, etc. ), score of the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool for adults (JHFRAT; score ranges from 0 to 35 [over 6: risk of falls]; sensitivity 25.8%, specificity 85.8%, positive predictive value [PPV] 64.6%, negative predictive value [NPV] 53.6% (Kang & Song )) on admission and history of a fall in the previous year were evaluated.…”

Health-Related Quality of Life of Elderly Women with Fall Experiences

“…Falls are commonly occurring accidents in older people, and they have become an important health issue as the number of older people increases with the aging population [1,2]. Over the past year, 15.9% of Korea's elderly experienced falls, with the fall rate of female seniors recorded at 19.4%, higher than that of male seniors at 11.2%; the hospital utilization rate was also reported to be high [3].…”