Asian Nurs Res.  2011 Mar;5(1):28-37.

A Comparative Study on the Validity of Fall Risk Assessment Scales in Korean Hospitals

• Kim KS
• Kim JA
• Choi YK
• Kim YJ
• Park MH
• Kim HY
• Song MS

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to compare the validity of three fall risk assessment scales including the Morse Fall Scale (MFS), the Bobath Memorial Hospital Fall Risk Assessment Scale (BMFRAS), and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Fall Risk Assessment Tool (JHFRAT).
METHODS
This study was a prospective validation cohort study in five acute care hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do, Korea. In total, 356 patients over the age of 18 years admitted from December 2009 to February 2010 participated. The three fall risk assessment scales listed above were tested for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated to show sensitivities and specificities for predicting falls based on different threshold scores for considering patients at high risk.
RESULTS
Based on the mean scores of each scale for falls, the MFS at a cut-off score of 50 had a sensitivity of 78.9%, specificity of 55.8%, positive predictive value of 30.8%, and negative predictive value of 91.4%, which were the highest values among the three fall assessment scales. Areas under the curve of the ROC curves were .761 for the MFS, .715 for the BMFRAS, and .708 for the JHFRAT.
CONCLUSIONS
Accordingly, of the three fall risk assessment scales, the highest predictive validity for identifying patients at high risk for falls was achieved by the MFS.

Keyword

accidental falls; risk assessment; sensitivity and specificity; ROC curve

MeSH Terms

Accidental Falls
Cohort Studies
Humans
Korea
Prospective Studies
Risk Assessment
ROC Curve
Sensitivity and Specificity
Weights and Measures