<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<sec>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Not much is known about the fall risk among the adult population of those who rarely visit doctors. We wanted to determine the prevalence of increased fall risk in a population of family practice non-attenders and the factors associated with it.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Methods</h3>
<p>We included participants from family medicine practices in this cross-sectional study. To be included in the study, the participants had to be adults living in the community (home-dwelling people) who had not visited their chosen family physician in the last five years (non-attenders). The identification of the eligible persons was done through a search of electronic medical records, which yield 2,025 non-attenders. Community nurses collected data in the participants’ homes. The outcome measure was increased fall risk as assessed by the Morse fall scale: increased risk (≥25) vs. no risk.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Results</h3>
<p>The sample consisted of 1,945 patients (96.0% response rate) with a mean age of 60.4 years (range 20.5 to 99.7 years). An increased fall risk was determined in 482 or 24.8% (95% CI: [22.9, 26.8]) of the patients. The multivariate model showed a significant association of increased fall risk with higher age (p&lt;0.001), lower systolic blood pressure (p=0.047), poor family function (p=0.016), increased risk of malnutrition (p=0.013), higher number of chronic diseases (p=0.027), higher pain intensity (p&lt;0.001), lower self-assessment of current health (p=0.002), and higher dependence in daily activities (p&lt;0.001).</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Non-attenders may have an increased risk of falling which depends on their health status and age. The inclusion of community nurses in primary healthcare teams could be of use not only to identify the non-attenders’ health needs, but also to better manage their health, especially the factors that were identified to be associated with greater fall risk.</p>
</sec>
</abstract>

Introduction
Not much is known about the fall risk among the adult population of those who rarely visit doctors. We wanted to determine the prevalence of increased fall risk in a population of family practice non-attenders and the factors associated with it.


Methods
We included participants from family medicine practices in this cross-sectional study. To be included in the study, the participants had to be adults living in the community (home-dwelling people) who had not visited their chosen family physician in the last five years (non-attenders). The identification of the eligible persons was done through a search of electronic medical records, which yield 2,025 non-attenders. Community nurses collected data in the participants’ homes. The outcome measure was increased fall risk as assessed by the Morse fall scale: increased risk (≥25) vs. no risk.


Results
The sample consisted of 1,945 patients (96.0% response rate) with a mean age of 60.4 years (range 20.5 to 99.7 years). An increased fall risk was determined in 482 or 24.8% (95% CI: [22.9, 26.8]) of the patients. The multivariate model showed a significant association of increased fall risk with higher age (p<0.001), lower systolic blood pressure (p=0.047), poor family function (p=0.016), increased risk of malnutrition (p=0.013), higher number of chronic diseases (p=0.027), higher pain intensity (p<0.001), lower self-assessment of current health (p=0.002), and higher dependence in daily activities (p<0.001).


Conclusion
Non-attenders may have an increased risk of falling which depends on their health status and age. The inclusion of community nurses in primary healthcare teams could be of use not only to identify the non-attenders’ health needs, but also to better manage their health, especially the factors that were identified to be associated with greater fall risk.

Fall Risk in Adult Family Practice Non-Attenders: A Cross-Sectional Study from Slovenia

Department of Family Medicine, Medical Faculty

Slovenian Journal of Public Health

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

TVEGANJE ZA PADEC MED ODRASLIMI REDKIMI OBISKOVALCI AMBULANT DRUŽINSKE MEDICINE: PRESEČNA RAZISKAVA IZ SLOVENIJE

Introduction
Not much is known about the fall risk among the adult population of those who rarely visit doctors. We wanted to determine the prevalence of...

Fall Risk in Adult Family Practice Non-Attenders: A Cross-Sectional Study from Slovenia

Article Category: Original scientific article

Published Online: Mar 15, 2023

Page range: 76 - 86

Received: Jun 09, 2022

Accepted: Dec 22, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2023-0011

Keywords
Fall risk, Primary healthcare, Family practice, Non-attenders, Cross-sectional studies

© 2023 Nina RUŽIĆ-GORENJEC et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Fall Risk in Adult Family Practice Non-Attenders: A Cross-Sectional Study from Slovenia

Article Category: Original scientific article

Published Online: Mar 15, 2023

Page range: 76 - 86

Received: Jun 09, 2022

Accepted: Dec 22, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2023-0011

KeywordsFall risk, Primary healthcare, Family practice, Non-attenders, Cross-sectional studies

© 2023 Nina RUŽIĆ-GORENJEC et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Fall risk, Primary healthcare, Family practice, Non-attenders, Cross-sectional studies