Schwenk, M, Lauenroth, A, Stock, C et al. (5 more authors) (2012) Definitions and methods of measuring and reporting on injurious falls in randomised controlled fall prevention trials: A systematic review. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 12 (50). 50 - ?. ISSN 1471-2288
Abstract
Background: The standardisation of the assessment methodology and case definition represents a major precondition for the comparison of study results and the conduction of meta-analyses. International guidelines provide recommendations for the standardisation of falls methodology; however, injurious falls have not been targeted. The aim of the present article was to review systematically the range of case definitions and methods used to measure and report on injurious falls in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on fall prevention. Methods. An electronic literature search of selected comprehensive databases was performed to identify injurious falls definitions in published trials. Inclusion criteria were: RCTs on falls prevention published in English, study population 65 years, definition of injurious falls as a study endpoint by using the terms "injuries" and "falls". Results: The search yielded 2089 articles, 2048 were excluded according to defined inclusion criteria. Forty-one articles were included. The systematic analysis of the methodology applied in RCTs disclosed substantial variations in the definition and methods used to measure and document injurious falls. The limited standardisation hampered comparability of study results. Our results also highlight that studies which used a similar, standardised definition of injurious falls showed comparable outcomes. Conclusions: No standard for defining, measuring, and documenting injurious falls could be identified among published RCTs. A standardised injurious falls definition enhances the comparability of study results as demonstrated by a subgroup of RCTs used a similar definition. Recommendations for standardising the methodology are given in the present review.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2012 Schwenk et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Elderly; Fall prevention trials; Fall-related outcomes; Injurious falls; Systematic review |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing Adult (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2016 14:17 |
Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2019 13:16 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-12-50 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/1471-2288-12-50 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:84875 |