309 Sensory function impairment as a falls risk factor of patients on a Frailty Intervention Team pathway

Abstract

Abstract Background The world guidelines for falls published in 2022 provide a patient-centred framework to support the identification, prevention, and management of falls in older adults, and suggest measuring sensory function with regards to falls risk factors including dizziness, vision, and hearing. This audit applied the falls risk stratification recommendations and reviewed the individual risk factor variables predictive of falls in those assessed by the Frailty Intervention Team (FIT) in our Emergency Department (ED). Methods Patients aged 65+ who attended the ED and who had a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) carried out by FIT between January and April 2023 were included. Sensory function status data was retrieved from the CGA completed for patients seen. Analysis of the data controlled for factors such as age, gender, clinical frailty score, delirium, cardiac risk, orthostatic hypotension, motor function, and medicines reconciliation and optimisation. Results During this period, 116 (33.4%) attendances were due to falls. Following removal of those missing key data, almost all attendees were in the ‘high’ risk of falls category (n = 140, 48.6%), or the ‘low’ category (n = 134, 46.5%). Very few people were in the ‘intermediate’ category (n = 14, 4.9%). The most prominent impairments in the high and low groups were balance (80.8 & 57.8%) and vision (73.7 & 67.3%). Hearing status was significantly predicted by risk grouping, whereas balance and vision were not. Most older adults in the high-risk category had an intervention in place for their mobility, hearing, and/or vision. Conclusion Most older adults that attended ED in quarter one of 2023 fall into the low or high-risk categories. While impaired balance function and vision were the most common impairments, hearing status alone was related to risk group. These results give valuable insight through a practical application of guidelines and pose questions for the application of three falls risk groups and the capacity for additional sensory intervention.