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A systematic review of falls in hospital for patients with communication disability: highlighting an invisible population

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posted on 2019-02-01, 00:00 authored by Bronwyn Hemsley, Joanne Steel, Linda Worrall, Sophie Hill, Lucy Bryant, Leanne Johnston, Andrew Georgiou, Susan BalandinSusan Balandin
BACKGROUND: Patients with communication disability, associated with impairments of speech, language, or voice, have a three-fold increased risk of adverse events in hospital. However, little research yet examines the causal relationship between communication disability and risk for specific adverse events in hospital. OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of a patient's communication disability on their falls risk in hospital. METHODS: This systematic review examined 61 studies on falls of adult hospital patients with communication disability, and patients at high risk of communication disability, to determine whether or not communication disability increased risk for falls, and the nature of and reasons for any increased risk. RESULTS: In total, 46 of the included studies (75%) reported on participants with communication disability, and the remainder included patients with health conditions placing them at high risk for communication disability. Two thirds of the studies examining falls risk identified communication disability as contributing to falls. Commonly, patients with communication disability were actively excluded from participation; measures of communication or cognition were not reported; and reasons for any increased risk of falls were not discussed. CONCLUSIONS: There is some evidence that communication disability is associated with increased risk of falls. However, the role of communication disability in falls is under-researched, and reasons for the increased risk remain unclear. Practical applications: Including patients with communication disability in falls research is necessary to determine reasons for their increased risk of adverse events in hospital. Their inclusion might be helped by the involvement of speech-language pathologists in falls research teams.

History

Journal

Journal of safety research

Volume

68

Pagination

89-105

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

0022-4375

eISSN

1879-1247

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, The Authors

Publisher

Elsevier