Effect of community education on reducing fall-related injuries in older people

Objective To investigate the rate of the fall among all the older people making a call to the emergency medical services,and fall-related injuries,explore the relations between the common diseases in the elderly and the fall,and evaluate the role of community education in reducing fall-related injuries in older people. Methods A prospective case-control study method was adopt.The older people making a call to the emergency medical services on account of the fall in Qingyunpu District of Nanchang city between January,2013 and December,2014 were enrolled and were divided into control group(between January 1,2013 and December 31,2013) and experimental group(between January 1,2014 and December 31,2014) according to the time period.50 among 72 communities in Qingyunpu district were randomly sampled to carry out the community educations of risk factors of falls and the first aid knowledge about the fall in 2014.The older patients making a call to the emergency medical services on account of the fall were followed up to investigate the examinations,diagnosis,admission and surgical treatments in the hospitals. Results When compared with 2013,the amount of elderly people increased by 0.64%,the rate of elderly people making a call to the emergency medical services increased by 8.45%,however,the rate of older people making a call to the emergency medical services on account of the fall decreased by 14.75% in 2014.The call time was different between the two groups(χ²=10.444,P=0.034);the time from the fall to making a call to the emergency medical services shorted obviously.The amount of older people with trauma was significant different(χ²=6.162,P=0.046),the patients with craniocerebral injury or bone fracture decreased clearly,but sprains and muscle strains increased,the difference in the types of diseases was not significant(χ²=11.15,P=0.266).The community education did not change the types of illness in elderly people;but some senile diseases were obviously correlated to the fall. Conclusion The community education can reduce the rate of injury caused by the falls,the early professional rescue and treatment can reduce the incidence of secondary injuries and complications.The fall commonly occurs to the older people with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular illness,bone and joint diseases,neurological diseases,diabetes,lung infection diseases,especially hypertension,and thus the community education should pay more attentions to them.The contents of education should include high risk factors of falls,common first aid measures for the injury such as fracture,brain injury and spinal cord injury caused by the fall.