Author, as appears in the article.: Caballero Casanoves, Priscilla; Barberia Marcalain, Eneko; Suelves Joanxich, Josep M.; Garcia Sayago, Francisco;
Department: Ciències Mèdiques Bàsiques
URV's Author/s: Barberia Marcalain, Eneko / García Sayago, Francisco
Keywords: Risk factors Polypharmacy Over 65 years Mortality Ground-level falls Comorbidity Autopsy Accidental injuries Accidental falls
Abstract: Background: Accidental falls are a growing public health problem. The objective was to describe the characteristics of deaths due to accidental falls in people over 65 from the forensic source.Methods: Descriptive observational study of deceased at over 65 undergoing judicial autopsy in Tarragona between the years 2013-2017 whose basic cause of death was coded as accidental fall (W00-W19 of the International Classification of Diseases - 10th edition).Results: 89 cases were identified (42.7% women). The mean age of the deceased females (82.9 years) was significantly higher than that of the males (77.6 years). The cause of death was a head injury in 77.5% of cases. 78.7% had previously been assisted in a hospital center. Falls from one level to another were significantly more lethal (60% vs 40%), and were associated with those corpses not coming from hospital. 82% had prescribed at least one drug (57.5% more than 5). 85.4% had a pathological history. Comorbidity was significantly higher in females and in corpses from hospital and lower in falls from one level to another.Conclusions: The data, based on forensic sources, show the presence of risk factors associated with the fatality of accidental falls in =65 years of age. More studies are needed to understand its role in these injuries.
Thematic Areas: Sociologia i política Saúde coletiva Public, environmental & occupational health Public health, environmental and occupational health Psicología Medicine (miscellaneous) Medicine (all) Medicina i Interdisciplinar General medicine Economia Ciencias sociales Administração pública e de empresas, ciências contábeis e turismo
licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
Author's mail: eneko.barberia@urv.cat francisco.garcia@urv.cat eneko.barberia@urv.cat
Author identifier: 0000-0001-5804-3597 0000-0003-0594-8370 0000-0001-5804-3597
Record's date: 2023-02-23
Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Link to the original source: https://www.sanidad.gob.es/biblioPublic/publicaciones/recursos_propios/resp/revista_cdrom/VOL95/O_BREVES/RS95C_202110179.pdf
Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
Papper original source: Revista Espanola De Salud Publica. 95
APA: Caballero Casanoves, Priscilla; Barberia Marcalain, Eneko; Suelves Joanxich, Josep M.; Garcia Sayago, Francisco; (2021). Descriptive study of a series of deaths due to accidental falls in the elderly. Revista Espanola De Salud Publica, 95(), -
Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Journal publication year: 2021
Publication Type: Journal Publications
Repositori URV