Falls in the community: state of the science

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of patients aged 65 and older treated between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2012

Race	All patients ≥ 65 years
	Female	Male	Total
Ethnic category
Hispanic or Latino	96	63	159
Not Hispanic or Latino	28,861	21,266	50,127
Unknown/refused to answer	426	426	852
Total of all subjects	29,383	21,755	51,138
Racial categories
American Indian/Alaska Native	36	26	62
Asian	129	80	209
Native Hawaiian or other	2	1	3
Pacific Islander
Black or African-American	4637	2360	6997
White	24,057	18,799	42,856
More than one race	0	0	0
Unknown/refused to answer	522	489	1011
Total of all subjects	29,383	21,755	51,138
Age, years
65–74	15,582	12,570	28,152
75–84	9529	7135	16,664
85+	4272	2050	6322
Total of all subjects	29,383	21,755	51,138

Table 2 Total number of patients aged 65 years and older with falls/injurious falls between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2012

	ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes	Patients (n)	Episodes (n)
Falls Injurious falls	E880–888	4363 (9%)	6130
	E880–888 and any of the following: Primary diagnosis of any codes shown below:
	Intracranial injury 850–854.xx
	Head injuries 959.01
	Fracture of skull 800–804.xx
	Fracture of neck and trunk 805–809.xx
	Fracture of upper limb 810–819.xx
	Fracture of lower limb 820–829.xx	1566 (3%)	1759
Total population		51,138

Abbreviation: ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification.

Table 3 Psychometric statistics of commonly used adult outpatient fall risk assessment tools²⁰

Scale name	Berg balance test	Elderly fall screening test	Dynamic gait index	Timed get up and go	Tinetti performance oriented mobility
Sample size	No data	361	133	30	79
Optimum cut score	49	3	19	14	10
Inter-rater reliability	0.95	No data	No data	0.98	0.90
Sensitivity	77%	93%	85%	87%	80%
Specificity	86%	78%	38%	87%	74%

Notes: Table content reused with permission from Oxford University Press. Perell KL, Nelson A, Goldman RL, Luther SL, Prieto-Lewis N, Rubenstein LZ. Fall risk assessment measures: an analytic review. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001;56(12):M761–M766.

PerellKLNelsonAGoldmanRLLutherSLPrieto-LewisNRubensteinLZFall risk assessment measures: an analytic reviewJ Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci20015612M761M76611723150

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