Knowledge and Management of Elderly Falls among Health Care Professionals
| Autor: | Yu-ShengLu, 呂育陞 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 98 Falls in the elderly people will result in functional decline, reduced quality of life, shortened life expectancy, increased expenditure of medical care and increased burden of long term care. Currently, when elderly people were sent to medical institutions because of fall-related injuries, the first-line health care professionals (HCPs) usually take care of injuries and perform basic physical examination, as well as imaging studies to confirm fall-related hematoma, fractures or soft-tissue injuries. Sometimes the trauma-related specialists will be consulted. However, little was conducted in assessment, prevention and management of falls in the elderly. Comprehensive knowledge is needed to managing falls in the elderly. As the elderly are the major subjects of medical care, it is necessary that every HCP should know how to manage elderly falls. This study is to investigate current situation of the knowledge and management of elderly falls among the HCPs in southern Taiwan, and to investigate if there is any deficiency in the knowledge about elderly falls, which can be the base for designing education of the falls prevention education planning in the future. This is a cross-sectional study. "The Questionnaire of Knowledge and Management of Elderly Falls among Health Care Professionals", composed of questionnaire of elderly falls management, definition, risk factors, prevention, as well as impact and treatment of elderly falls, was designed by the researcher. Questionnaire was revised according to the validity assessment by four experts. Thirty-four professionals not enrolled in the study were sampled for pilot study to test the reliability of questionnaire (Cronbach’s α=.63). SPSS 17.0 for Windows was used to statistic analysis. “Management status” was evaluated using multiple-choice grouping, and “Knowledge status” was evaluated using univariate analysis and multi-variate regression. A total of 313 professionals were enrolled in this study. As to management of elderly falls without injuries, accident notification (91.4%) was the most common action that HCPs took. If there were visible injuries after falls, the focus was on the treatment of fall-related injuries (97.4%). The percentage of orthopedic and surgical consultation was much higher among theelderly falls with injuries than those without injuries. As to assessment of elderly falls without injuries, HCPs tended to focus on neurological examination (25.6%) and environmental assessment (24.9%). Overall, HCPs got highest scores in “prevention of falls” (89.8%), and the lowest scores in “assistive device” of extrinsic factors (51.6%). Definition of falls was answered correctly among most HCPs, especially the physicians(72.6%). Most of HCPs thought they were not familiar to osteoporosis medications (74.7%). There was no significantly statistic association between the overall knowledge of intrinsic risk factors and characteristics of HCPs, but HCPs answered less correctly in the two items of intrinsic risk factors, "female" (6.7%) and "depression" (25.9%). As to the knowledge of the elderly falls, senior HCPs understood better in “medications” and “impact of hip fracture” of extrinsic risk factors. Surgical HCPs understood better in “environment” of extrinsic risk factors. HCPs who had a higher self-rated degree of knowledge of elderly falls also understood better in “environment” and “falls prevention". HCPs who had more experiences in managing falls understood better in “extrinsic factors” and “medications”. As to the association between occupation and knowledge, physicians knew less about the assistive devices. Nurses knew less about the assistive devices, complications after falls, impact of hip fracture and osteoporosis. Rehabilitation therapists knew less about the medications, impact of hip fracture and osteoporosis. There was no association between knowledge of fall prevention and types of occupation. When HCPs managing elderly falls, the causes of falls,should be assessed. A comprehensive assessment and more consultions of neurologial, rehabilitation, or geriatric professionals should be addressed. In addition, different education curriculum of fall prevention should be provided based on different HCPs insufficient backgrounds. We hope that HCPs can provide optimal assistance for the elderly that fall down. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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