ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1609745
This article is part of the Research TopicAddressing Fracture Risk in Aging Populations: Integrated Prevention TacticsView all 4 articles
Risk of falls in the elderly at Thai Binh Medical University Hospital and its related factors in 2024
Provisionally accepted
- Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Thái Bình, Vietnam
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Background: Falls represent a significant health threat to the elderly, often leading to severe disability and a decline in functional independence. Effective strategies for early prediction and detection are therefore essential to ensure the health and safety of older adults. This study aims to evaluate the proportion of fall risk and some factors related to fall risk of the elderly living at the Examination Department, Thai Binh University of Medicine Hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 404 older adults who presented as outpatients at Thai Binh Medical University Hospital between October 2023 and June 2024. Data were collected via direct interviews using the Vietnamese-translated STEADI-CDC Fall Risk Questionnaire (FRQ). A decision tree model was employed to identify the most significant predictive factors for fall risk.. Results: Among the 404 older adults participating in the study, the risk of falling was 19.6%. The average FRQ score was 11.0 ± 2.7 points. Similarly, older adults with osteoarthritis had a risk of falling of 18.3%, while in the group without osteoarthritis, it was 5.6%. Decision tree analysis revealed two important factors that increased the risk of falling: a history of previous falls and osteoarthritis status. Conclusion: A history of previous falls and the presence of bone and joint disease are critical predictive factors for fall risk in this elderly outpatient population. These findings suggest a simplified, two-question screening approach could be effectively implemented in clinical practice to identify high-risk individuals for targeted preventive interventions.
Keywords: Risk of falling,, elderlyElderly, , related Related factors,, decision Decision tree, Vietnam
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nguyen, Van Nguyen, Minh Bui, Duc Nguyen, Trong Nguyen and Tien Nham. 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: Tien Van Nguyen, Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Thái Bình, Vietnam
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