- Title
- The burden of hospitalised fall-related injury in community-dwelling older people in Victoria : A database study
- Creator
- Vu, Trang; Day, Lesley; Finch, Caroline
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/74115
- Identifier
- vital:7211
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12156
- Identifier
- ISSN:1326-0200
- Abstract
- Objective: To estimate the burden of hospitalised fall-related injury in community-dwelling older people in Victoria. Methods: We analysed fall-related, person-identifying hospital discharge data and patient-level hospital treatment costs for community-dwelling older people aged 65+ years from Victoria between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2008, inclusive. Key outcomes of interest were length of stay (LOS)/episode, cumulative LOS (CLOS)/patient and inpatient costs. Results: The burden of hospitalised fall-related injury in community-dwelling older people aged 65+ years in Victoria was 284,781 hospital bed days in 2005-06, rising to 310,031 hospital bed days in 2007-08. Seventy-one per cent of episodes were multiday. One in 15 acute care episodes was a high LOS outlier and 14% of patients had ≥1 episode classified as high LOS outlier. The median CLOS/patient was nine days (interquartile range 2-27). The annual costs of inpatient care, in June 2009 prices, for fall-related injury in community-dwelling people aged 65+ years in Victoria rose from $213 million in 2005-06 to $237 million in 2007-08. The burden of hospitalised fall-related injury in community-dwelling older women, people aged 85+ years and those with comorbidity was considerable. Conclusions: The burden of hospitalised fall-related injury in community-dwelling older people aged 65+ years in Victoria is significantly more than previously projected. Importantly, this study identifies that women, patients with comorbidity and those aged 85+ years account for a considerable proportion of this burden. Implications: A corresponding increase in falls prevention effort is required to ensure that the burden is properly addressed.
- Publisher
- Public Health Association of Australia Inc.
- Relation
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Vol. 38, no. 2 (April 2014), p. 128-133; http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Rights
- © 2014 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2014 Public Health Association of Australia.
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- Falls; Hospitalisation; Inpatient costs; Length of stay; Older people; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; 1402 Applied Economics; 1605 Policy and Administration
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