J Korean Med Sci.  2021 Feb;36(7):e53. 10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e53.

Risk Factors for Intracranial Injury Caused by Falls at Home in Korea Using Data from the Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance (2011–2018)

• Na Wi
• Park JO
• Cho GC
• Lee EJ
• Wang SJ
• Park HA

• KMID: 2513075
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e53

Abstract

Background
Most unintentional injuries that occur at home are preventable. However, it may be difficult to sufficiently reduce the number of falls occurring at home by only identifying risk factors focused on specific age groups. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the risk factors (especially age and places where injuries occurred at home) for intracranial injury (ICI) caused by unintentional falls at home.
Methods
Using the Emergency Department (ED)-Based Injury In-depth Surveillance, we analyzed the data of patients who visited the ED due to unintentional falls at home. Risk factors were identified using multivariable logistic regression according to age groups and interactions between place of injury occurrence and age groups, and sex and age groups were assessed.
Results
In total, 232,124 patients were included in the analysis; older adults had a higher adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 14.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 12.74–15.49) of ICI than infants. The corridor was associated with ICI in the male pediatric group (aOR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.08–6.84) and the balcony with the female pediatric group (aOR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.03–4.04). In the adult group, aOR of kitchen was 1.38 (95% CI, 1.02–1.88) in females and 0.56 (95% CI, 0.48–0.66) in males.
Conclusion
In this study, we identified the risk factors of ICI caused by falls at home using ED-based injury surveillance data. The risk of ICI was different among places of occurrence in the home depending on the age groups and sex.

Keyword

Falls; Home; Head Trauma; Emergency Department

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Study population.

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  Fig. 2 The activities in adult head trauma cases due to falls in the kitchen. Proportion of type of fall by activity at the time of injury (A) and proportion of activity at the time of injury by sex (B) among adults who were injured in the kitchen.

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  Fig. 3 Proportion of underlying objects producing injury by type of activity at the time of injury among adults who were injured in the kitchen.

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