Falls Prevention Clinic

University of British Columbia

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Falls

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01022866

H09-02370

Details and patient eligibility

About

At the Falls Prevention Clinic, each subject receives a comprehensive assessment of his or her individual risk factors for falling in addition to a comprehensive medical examination. Recommendations and appropriate followup tests and referrals are ordered for patients on an individual basis.

Essential for medical advancement is the inquiry into information collected from medical records of older adults at high risk of falls and fracture. On such example is a retrospective chart review we conducted among patients who sustained a hip fracture [14]. The database we propose will provide novel insight into the identification of individuals at high risk for falls, key predictors of falls and associated mortality, morbidity, health related quality of life and healthcare resource utilization. In summary, our database will enable us to assess and improve quality of care, service delivery, patient outcomes, patient reported outcomes and track economic burden.

Full description

Purpose: In community-dwelling seniors aged 70 years and older who attend the Vancouver Falls Prevention Clinic and who consent to allowing their data to form part of the Falls Prevention Clinic Database, we will audit charts to answer the following questions: 1) In terms of mobility and functional status, what characterizes the patient population that is referred to the Falls Prevention Clinic? 2) What is the physiological profile assessment (PPA) of individuals at the Falls Prevention Clinic? 3) What are the demographic characteristics? 4) What are factors that explain differences in health related quality of life and healthcare resource utilization? and 5) For individuals who have a high falls risk profile, what are their specific clinical outcome measures that indicate better or worse health related quality of life?

Objective: To develop a Falls Prevention Clinic Database for subjects who attend the Falls Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital and Lion's Gate Hospital.

Enrollment: 440 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 70+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adults ≥70 years attending a Falls Prevention Clinic Service;
• Understands, speaks, and reads English proficiently;
• MMSE [11] score > 24/30;
• A Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) © [15] score of at least 2 SD above normal OR Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) 68 performance of greater than 15 seconds OR history of at least 2 falls in the previous 12 months;
• Expected to live greater than12 months;
• Living in the Metropolitan Vancouver area;
• Community-dwelling (i.e., not residing in a nursing home, extended care unit, or assisted-care facility);
• Able to walk 3 meters with or without an assistive device; and
• Able to provide written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease (e.g., Parkinson's disease);
• Diagnosed with dementia (of any type);
• Had a stroke;
• Have clinically significant peripheral neuropathy or severe musculoskeletal or joint disease; or
• Have a history indicative of carotid sinus sensitivity (i.e., syncopal falls).