Fatores associados à prevalência de quedas em pacientes hospitalizados: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Worldwide, falls represent a major public health problem and can have serious consequences for the health of the individual. In the hospital environment, falls are the main cause, known, of incidents. This is an integrative review, with the objective of identifying the factors associated with the prevalence of falls in hospitalized patients. In order to perform the data collection, the following descriptors were used: Accidents by fall, Nursing and Patient Safety plus the Boolean marker "AND" and the search was performed through indexed journals in the databases of the Virtual Health Library, Scientific Electronic Library Online and Nursing Database. The inclusion criteria for this study were articles, except for integrative reviews, published between 2008 and 2017. A total of 506 articles were found after the analysis and in compliance with the inclusion criteria, resulting in a pre-selection of 81 articles. The final sample consisted of six articles that addressed satisfactorily the guiding question: what is being produced in the Brazilian literature about the prevalence of falls in hospitalized patients? After reading the articles in full, the analysis was based on two themes that emerged, which are: main factors related to falls and failures that contribute to the occurrence of falls. It was possible to identify that the factors associated with falls, comes from the prevalence in adult patients with variability in age between 55 and 87 years. The female gender, decreased visual acuity, walking difficulties and the environment as a factor of relevance for the occurrence of the damage are highlighted, and for many patients the use of multiple medications increases the prevalence of falls. Concerning the safety of the It is paramount for the institutions to turn their attention to the theme, since a large number of patients are affected daily by falls, and most of them could be avoided.