ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Injury Prevention and Control
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1601666
Effectiveness of an Improved Fall Risk Assessment Form Combined with Obstacle Physical Activity Testing in Preventing Falls in Elderly Hospitalized Patients
Provisionally accepted
Xuan WangWei LiMeijie ZhengChengfei LiRuijing LiangSuchan YaoXiaoli LiuXiaosong ZhangXiaomin Di
Yulong Deng*- Hebei Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Hebei, China
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Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized preventive interventions guided by an improved Risk Assessment Form and an obstacle physical activity test in preventing falls among elderly hospitalized patients. Method: A single-center, randomized controlled trial was conducted with 320 elderly hospitalized patients (mean age 76.4 ± 6.8 years), who were allocated to either an experimental group (n=160) or a control group (n=160). The experimental group received a comprehensive fall risk assessment using an improved form and an obstacle activity test, which subsequently guided personalized prevention measures. The control group was assessed using traditional hospital fall risk screening methods and received standard fall prevention care. The primary outcome was the incidence of falls. Secondary outcomes included injury severity, nursing satisfaction, patient compliance, physical activity improvement, and quality of life. Key areas for process improvement were identified using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Result: The experimental group had a significantly lower fall incidence (8.13%) compared to the control group (28.13%). The experimental group also experienced a lower severity of injuries, with a higher proportion of soft tissue injuries and a lower proportion of fractures. Nursing satisfaction, patient compliance rates, physical activity improvement, and quality of life scores were all significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group. FMEA identified that failure to implement preventive measures consistently was the highest-risk failure mode in the fall prevention process. Conclusion: The application of personalized fall prevention strategies guided by a comprehensive assessment that combines a multidimensional risk form with a dynamic obstacle physical activity test is effective in reducing falls and injury severity among elderly hospitalized patients. This approach also enhances patient satisfaction, compliance, and quality of life, and is recommended for broader implementation in inpatient settings.
Keywords: elderly hospitalized patients, falls, Obstacle physical activity ability test, fall risk assessment, Fall prevention, Patient Safety
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Li, Zheng, Li, Liang, Yao, Liu, Zhang, Di and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yulong Deng, Hebei Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Hebei, China
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