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Question

Literature review based off of elderly falls and the last paper

 

 

 

This week you will submit the Literature Review section of your proposal. Each week you have been adding to your growing body of evidence to support your problem and proposed innovation to address the problem. The review of literature is a critical, analytical summary and synthesis of the current knowledge of your research topic. Thus it should compare and relate different theories, findings, etc., rather than just summarize them individually.

The following resources will help guide you (in addition to our course textbooks):

http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html
http://www.duluth.umn.edu/~hrallis/guides/researching/litreview.html
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/literature-reviews/
Writing the Literature Review: Step-by-Step Tutorial for Graduate Students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IUZWZX4OGI
Writing the Literature Review (Part Two): Step-by-Step Tutorial for Graduate Students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoYpyY9n9YQ

 

 

 

 

 

Subject Literature Pages 12 Style APA

Answer

Introduction
Falls among the elderly population of the world represents a major challenge in modern healthcare settings. This population is often dependent on healthcare staff and family members to undertake various tasks. The implication is that falls among the elderly population has been an area of interest in literature as investigators attempt to present findings on how the problem can be tamed. More so, falls among the elderly patient population brings about major economic as well as social challenges, which has been linked to decreased quality of life at home as well as in institutional care environments.
This article explores literature review on elderly falls including findings and theories presented by different researchers.
The term fall in healthcare settings has been an area of considerable debate regarding what it entails. The outcome has been a number of versions that various investigators claim best to describe this occurrence. In some literature, falls are presented as complex multifactorial phenomenon (Al-Aama, 2011). In fact, understanding the mechanism of falls among elderly persons calls for proper understanding of the prerequisites associated with normal gait. Some identified substrates for what is considered a normal gait consist of fine neural networks including the basal ganglia-brainstem system and exquisite musculoskeletal structure (Al-Aama, 2011). In other descriptions, Morse (2008) claims that fall may be described as accidental, anticipated physiological plunge or unforeseen physiological fall. This is because accidental falls may arise when elderly patients’ trip or slip because of environmental factors including nonexistence grab bar on their bedsides to aid them in moving around. On the other hand, falls may be anticipated and this happens when a patient is identified as fall prone due to history of previous falls, which may have caused impaired gait (Morse, 2008). Rubenstein and Josephson (2002) claims that the so-called accidental or falls that are triggered by environmental factors comprises the largest fall cause category. In essence, even though few accidental falls can purely be attributed to environmental hazards alone, accidental falls are widely perceived to be preventable if proper measures are put in place. As an example, age-associated changes in body posture control as well as muscle strength can be considered when placing elderly patients in healthcare settings. In fact, such factors commonly impair elderly patients’ ability to avoid falls after unpredicted trip or while bending. Overall, elderly patients are increasingly frail making them a high-risk population that has more medical- related falls than their healthier counterparts do.
In addition, literature points out the elderly patients are increasingly predisposed to falls due to a number of reasons. Cameron et al (2005) notes that elderly persons often experience several emotional challenges including fear, loss of confidence, anxiety, as well as shame. This is compounded by the increased likelihood of elderly patients suffering from other chronic emotional and illness problems, which inevitably increases their dependency on family members as well as healthcare practitioners. Cameron et al (2005), notes that approximately 33 percent of elderly population has considerable functional decline following fall, which implies that they increasingly become vulnerable to subsequent falls. More so, elderly patients experience psychological challenges following the fall including the inevitable fear of falling, activity avoidance, decreased self-efficacy, as well as loss of confidence.
Nordin et al (2008) claims that falls increasingly cause injuries during old age. Those living in residential health care facilities are particularly likely to experience more falls than elderly patients living in a community are. Nordin et al (2008) notes that falls among elderly patients may be an outcome of multiple factors, but impaired mobility due to gait emerges as the most common factor. It is imperative that causes and risk factors for falls are highlighted to identify elderly patients most likely to experience falls. Literature has made available hundreds of ailments and diseases that are known to be risk factors and or causes for falls. Often, risk factors and causes are grouped into categories to abridge the examination process. Nordin et al (2008) claims that as persons age there are several inevitable physiological changes that take place overtime including in the musculoskeletal system losing strength. In addition, vision and hearing are considerably impaired, which in turn compromise movements as well as contribute to unsteadiness. This means that elderly patients are increasingly vulnerable to experiencing falls.
Al-Aama (2011) study identified some independent risk factors for falling among elderly patients including balance impairment, past falls, visual impairments, orthostasis, as well as psychoactive or polypharmacy drugs. The likelihood of falls rise with the number of risk factors, and Al-Aama (2011) claims that females older than 80 years suffering from such ailments as pain and diabetes are prone to falls. In fact, those showing more than four risk factors are most likely to experience falls. The high-risk factors leading to elderly patient falls include gait problems, Parkinson disease, history of falls, as well as walking aid use. These factors almost inevitably mean that elderly patients will experience falls regardless of whether they are in community or healthcare settings. Recent findings, however, also suggest that the severity of musculoskeletal pain and the number of joints affected increases the likelihood of falls among elderly patients. This is because it tends to interfere with elderly patients’ daily activities.
Rubenstein (2006), claims that identifying risk factors is crucial to the process of developing proper intervention mechanism. In fact, once the risk factors and causes among elderly patients are identified it is possible to institute appropriate therapy. Rubenstein (2006), claims that a number of techniques may assist elderly patients that have orthostatic risk factor.
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References

Hart-Hughes, S et al. (2006). Fall prevention equipment & technology resource guide. Retrieved from http://seniorfriendlyhospitals.ca/files/Fall%20Prevention%20Equipment%20and%20Technology%20Resource%20Guide_0.pdf
Rubenstein, L. (2006). Falls in older people: epidemiology, risk factors and strategies for prevention. Age and Ageing 2006; 35-S2: ii37–ii41.
Al-Aama, T. (2011). Falls in the elderly. Retrieved from https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/geriatrics/education/common_geriatric_clinical_issues/SD%20-%20Falls%20in%20the%20Elderly.pdf
Nordin, E. (2008). Prognostic validity of the timed up-and-go test, a modified get-up-and-go test, staff’s global judgement and fall history in evaluating fall risk in residential care facilities. Age and Ageing, 37(4), 442-448.

 

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