Causes and consequences of fall among elderly people at home

Introduction: Falls are frequent among elderly people and, as they spend most of their time at home, a place which might be safe often becomes the environment posing the biggest risk. Objective: Identify the causes and consequences of falls among elderly people at home, according to gender and age group, and determine which body structures are most affected. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 389 elderly people living in the town of Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil, with 191 women (49.10%) and 198 men (50.89%). For data collec¬tion, we used a questionnaire and an examination of the mental status. Results: We identified an average of 1.6 falls per year; there was an average of 1.57 for men and 1.63 for women. However, according to the age group, people over 80 years were those who suffered more falls, with an average of 2.16 per year. The place with the highest incidence of falls was the bathroom (24.94%), followed by the kitchen (18.25%). Most people reported they have suffered some kind of injury (92.03%); excoriations (46.52%) were the most common, followed by fractures (29.05%), and the sites with more episodes were the ankle (19.79%) and knee (18.25%). Conclusion: We found out that the occurrence of falls at home constitutes a public health problem, either due to the number of injuries and the impact they generate on the elderly health or the need for thinking of strategies to prevent these episodes at home