Trends in fall-related ambulance use and hospitalisation among older adults in NSW, 2006–2013: a retrospective, population-based study

Serene Paul; Lara Harvey; Therese Carroll; Qiang Li; Soufiane Boufous; Annabel Priddis; Anne Tiedemann; Lindy Clemson; Stephen Lord; Sandy Muecke; Jacqueline Close; Serigne Lo; Catherine Sherrington

doi:10.1071/phrp27341701

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Trends in fall-related ambulance use and hospitalisation among older adults in NSW, 2006–2013: a retrospective, population-based study

Serene Paul ^A ^B ^* , Lara Harvey ^C , Therese Carroll ^D , Qiang Li ^E , Soufiane Boufous ^F , Annabel Priddis ^D , Anne Tiedemann ^A , Lindy Clemson ^B , Stephen Lord , Sandy Muecke ^G , Jacqueline Close ^C ^H , Serigne Lo ^I and Catherine Sherrington ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Musculoskeletal Health Sydney, School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

^B Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

^C Neuroscience Research Australia, UNSW Sydney

^D Centre for Population Health, NSW Ministry of Health, Sydney, Australia

^E The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia

^F Transport and Road Safety Research, UNSW Sydney, Australia

^G NSW Ambulance, Sydney, Australia

^H Prince of Wales Clinical School, UNSW Sydney, Australia

^I Melanoma Institute Australia, Sydney, NSW

^* Correspondence to: serene.paul@sydney.edu.au

Public Health Research and Practice 27, e27341701 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp27341701

Published: 11 October 2017

2017 © Paul et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

Objective and importance of study:To describe characteristics and temporal trends of fall-related ambulance service use and hospital admission in older adults in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Such information will facilitate a more targeted approach to planning and delivery of health services to prevent falls and their adverse sequelae in different groups of older adults. Study type: Retrospective population-based descriptive study. Methods: Fall-related ambulance use and hospital admissions for all falls and injurious falls in NSW residents aged ≥65 years between 2006 and 2013 were obtained from two discrete sources of routinely collected data. Rates of use are presented descriptively. Results: There were 314 041 occasions of fall-related ambulance use by older adults and 331 311 fall-related hospitalisations, of which 69% (n = 227 753) were for injurious falls. Fractures accounted for 57% of injurious hospitalisations. Slips and trips were the most common mechanism of falls requiring hospitalisation (52%). Residents of aged care facilities had a greater proportion of fall injury hospitalisations compared with people living in the community (85% and 65%, respectively). Conclusions: Rates of fall-related ambulance use and hospitalisation were similar and continued to increase over time. Increased effort is needed to prevent falls and associated injury among older people in NSW, particularly among people living in aged care facilities. Ongoing monitoring of rates and the characteristics of people who fall are needed to determine the long-term impact of fall prevention interventions.