Mortality of falls among the elderly in Haishu District
SHEN Yingzhuo1, CHEN Jie1, LIU Fang1, SUN Jialu2, WANG Yun1, TANG Qianru2
1. Department of Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, Haishu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315010, China; 2. Haishu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315010, China
Abstract：Objective To investigate the characteristics of mortality of falls among the elderly in Haishu District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, so as to provide insights into the improvement of fall control strategy. Methods Data pertaining to surveillance of falls in Haishu District from 2017 to 2022 were collected from the Ningbo Municipal Digital Disease Prevention and Control Platform. The trends in mortality of falls in Haishu District from 2017 to 2022 were evaluated using annual percent change (APC). The distribution of demographic characteristics, locations of falls, injury sites, interval from fall occurrence to death and type of falls specified by age were descriptively analyzed. Results A total of 1 206 deaths occurred due to falls among the elderly at ages of 60 years and older in Haishu District from 2017 to 2022, including 414 men and 612 women, with a male to female ratio of 0.67∶1. The average age was (85.20±8.42) years. The average annual crude mortality and standardized mortality of were 101.10/105 and 85.40/105 from 2017 to 2022, respectively, with no obvious changing trends (APC=5.797% and 5.337%, all P>0.05). The standardized death rate of falls in females was higher than that of males (102.60/105 vs. 69.55/105, P<0.05). The average annual mortality of falls appeared a tendency towards a rise with age among the elderly at ages of 60 years and older, with the highest mortality of 147.18/105 seen in the elderly at ages of 85 years and older. Falls predominantly occurred at home (836 cases, 81.48%) and on the same level (881 cases, 85.87%). The injury sites were mainly lower limbs (388 cases, 37.82%) and head (308 cases, 30.02%). In addition, the interval from fall occurrence to death mainly ranged from 24 hours to 6 months (757 cases, 73.79%). Conclusions The mortality of falls appeared a tendency towards a rise with age among the elderly at ages of 60 years and older in Haishu District from 2017 to 2022, which was higher in women than in men. The location of falls was predominantly at home and the type of falls predominantly at the same level. High attention to residential environments, and reinforcement of gender- and age-specific interventions are recommended.
