• Ana García-Martínez, Adriana Gil-Rodrigo, Arrate Placer, Xavier Alemany, Sira Aguiló, Victoria Torres-Machado, Javier Jacob, Pablo Herrero, Pere Llorens, Francisco Javier Martín-Sánchez, and Òscar Miró.
• Servicio de Urgencias, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, España.
• Emergencias. 2022 Dec 1; 34 (6): 444451444-451.

ObjectivesTo identify characteristics associated with a new fall in a patient who received emergency department care after an accidental fall and to develop a risk model to predict repeated falls.Material And MethodsThe FALL-ER registry included accidental falls in patients over the age of 65 years treated in 5 Spanish emergency departments. Independent variables analyzed were patient characteristics at baseline, fall characteristics, immediate consequences, and functional status on discharge. Patients were followed with telephone interviews for 6 months to record the occurrence of new falls. Multivariate regression analysis was used to identify variables associated with falling again and to develop a risk model. We identified 3 levels of risk for new falls (low, intermediate, and high).ResultsA total of 1313 patients were studied; 147 patients (11.2%) reported having another fall. Variables associated with risk of falling again were having had a fall in the 12 months before the index fall, neurological disease, anemia, use of non-opioid analgesics, falling at home, falling at night, head injury on falling, and need for help when rising from a chair. The probability of falling again was 3.5%, 10.5%, and 23.3%, respectively, in patients at low, intermediate, and high risk. The model's ability to discriminate was moderate: the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.688 (95% CI, 0.640-0.736).ConclusionOne in 9 older adults treated in an emergency department for an accidental fall will fall again within 6 months. It is possible to identify patients at higher risk for whom preventive measures should be implemented.

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