Elderly Fall Screening Test
Healthcare professionals may use an Elderly Fall Screening Test to help assess an older person's risk of falling, by asking questions about previous falls or conducting tests that measure balance and gait. Tests such as the 30-Second Chair Stand Test can assess an older person's strength and how quickly they can get up from a chair without assistance. Patients must stand up from sitting position and stand back up within 30 seconds without assistance before sitting back down again. A higher score indicates a lower risk for falling, while lower ones indicate more. Another balance test measures how well someone can stay upright in four different positions; although longer to administer, this technique may provide insight into whether a fall may occur.
Studies have demonstrated that various screening tools can accurately predict a person's fall risk; however, these instruments can be cumbersome and challenging to use in clinical settings, making their implementation a difficult challenge for healthcare providers in busy environments like hospitals. Furthermore, multiple assessments may lead to exhaustion for both healthcare staff and elderly persons assessed.
fall alarms for seniors Healthcare professionals need easy-to-use screens that are reliable in any setting and provide accurate assessments of cognitive function.
Studies have revealed that simply asking whether someone has experienced a fall within the past year is insufficient to identify people at high risk of falling. Thus, more needs to be done in terms of developing and refining existing fall risk screens before testing how well they perform in real-life settings.
Studies have been undertaken to increase the predictive ability of existing tools by including additional factors. Bongue et al. found that only when these tests included other forms of identification could they accurately predict falling; otherwise they failed to do so. A comprehensive list of risk factors is essential in accurately identifying older adults at risk of falling.
Recent research developed FRRISque as a screening tool that can be utilized by healthcare workers and community health workers alike. The tool's simple, low-cost and user-friendly nature enables it to easily be implemented into clinical practice; using its scoring method it categorizes older adults according to low, moderate or high risks of falls.
It measures four easily measurable factors without requiring patients to undergo complex cognitive tasks or manual tests, and its validity and reliability were tested on a small cohort of frail independent community-dwelling older people in independent living communities, where it proved accurate as an indicator of future falls. Its authors suggested using it along with other measures of assessment fall risk in community dwelling elders; healthcare professionals will then be able to identify those requiring further multifactorial analysis and intervention.
