Chronoprevention in Hospital Falls of Older People

Accidental falls in hospitals are serious events concerning the safety of the patients. Recent studies demonstrated that the time of falls is a key factor to be considered in prevention. It has been shown that the time of day, the day of the week and the month of the year impact on the occurrence of falls. The aim of this project is to know the effect of the application of a program of preventive measures based on the temporal patterns of the risk factors on the hospital fall occurrence. A mixed method research design will be conducted. Three phases will be carry out: 1) Longitudinal prospective study in two parts: a) audits and seminars of health professionals focused on an effective and efficient hospital falls register. Cosinor and Multi-Component analyses will be performed to obtain temporal patterns of the hospital falls and their related variables. b) Implementation of a based-temporal patterns, multidimensional prevention program. 2) Retrospective study of falls registered in institutional databases. 3) Qualitative study based on focus groups (physicians, nurses and nursing assistants). It is imperative to study temporal patterns of hospital falls to effectively and comprehensively define the etiology of falls, and therefore, design preventive strategies. A reduction of the number of in-hospital falls and related injuries is expected, as well as, an improvement of the quality of life of patients. Considering temporal patterns, and levels of mood and sleep of healthcare professionals will achieve an improvement of patient safety.