Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2012 , Vol 15, Issue 3
ACCIDENT PREVALENCE AND ACCIDENT ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG ELDERLY PEOPLE LIVING IN NURSING HOMES IN
Saliha ALTIPARMAK1, Gönül DİNÇ HORASAN2
1Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sağlık Yüksekokulu MANİSA
2Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Biyoistatistik ve Tıbbi Bilişim Anabilim Dalı MANİSA
Introduction: Accidents of old age is an important health problem for the cases of morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the accident prevalence and to identify associated risk factors among elderly people living in nursing homes in Manisa city.

Materials and Method: This cross sectional study was conducted in all nursing homes (n=4) Manisa city in Aegean region of Turkey. The data were collected in March 2010- May 2010. The population of the study included elderly people living nursing homes (n=260). Of those elderly people, 210 (80.8%) were face to face interviewed by means of a questionaire. The questionaire included three forms: “sociodemographic variables form”, “Brief Disability Questionnaire”, and “accident experience form”. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 11.0. Descriptive statistics, the χ2 test, p for trend and logistic regression models were used for data analysis.

Results: Prevalence of at least one accident experience in the previous year was 38.6% (n=81) in the study population. The most frequent accident type and accident place were falls (63.3%) and stairs, respectively. The most frequent accident reasons were balance disorder among personal reasons (20.2%) and wet and uneven floor among enviromental reasons (12.8%). We have found the use of an assistive device and disability was an important risk factor for accidents.

Conclusion: Accidents are common among elderly elderly people living in nursing homes. Keywords : Aged; Nursing Home; Accidents