The U-shaped association between hospitalization time and fall incidence in inpatients using publicly available data: A cross-sectional study in Japan.
Zihong Chen, Qiang Zhong, Yonghong Chen and 2 others
PMID 36177862WHAT IT FOUND
In 8,598 hospital inpatients, falls were least frequent during stays of 6 to 12 days.
They were more common in stays of 5 days or less and rose again after 8 days. This is an association, not proof that hospitalization time causes falls.
Key findings
01Among 8,598 inpatients, falls occurred in 1.81% (156).
02After adjustment, inpatients with hospitalization time of 13 days or more had higher fall odds than those with 5 days or less (OR 1.57; 95% CI 1.07 to 2.30).
03The association was U-shaped: from 0 to 8 days, fall odds decreased (OR 0.72; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.83); beyond 8 days, fall odds increased (OR 1.06; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.09).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that length of stay caused falls. It used de-identified public data from one hospital in Japan, which limits generalizability. It excluded people hospitalized for more than 40 days, which may have underestimated falls in longer stays. The data lacked disease type, patients' clinical conditions, worsening or improvement during the hospital stay, treatments received, and characteristics of the care team. Fall events were collected from clinical records, and the paper did not describe the circumstances of each fall.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the Guangxi Health and Family Planning Commission and the Wuzhou Science and Technology Bureau. The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that keeping patients in hospital longer prevents falls or that discharge by day 8 is safer. The study is cross-sectional, excluded stays over 40 days, and lacked diagnosis, clinical status, treatments, and care team details, so it cannot show cause.