Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Objective To quantify the unintentional injuries associated with housing elements among older adults treated in US hospital emergency departments (EDs). To identify modifiable home hazards.
Methods The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) coding manual was reviewed to identify all codes associated with housing elements that were permanently attached to a home. We queried the 2020 NEISS data for older adults (aged 65 and older) to determine the number of injuries associated with each element. The 10 elements involved in the most hospitalisations and the most ED visits were each tabulated by the number of records in the NEISS sample and national estimate, yielding two separate lists of 10 housing elements. A review of case narratives was conducted on a random selection constituting 10% of all records or a minimum of 100 records to determine common precipitating factors and prevention recommendations.
Results From the two lists, we identified 11 housing elements most commonly associated with housing-related injuries, resulting in ED visits or hospitalisations. The housing element most associated with housing-related injuries was floor, leading to 929 937 ED visits. Subsequent case narrative review yielded prevention recommendations, including modifications that support balance and fall recovery, reduce the need to reach and improve visibility.
Conclusions Housing element-related injuries affect hundreds of thousands of older adults. Case narratives reveal falls, tripping/slipping and sliding injuries that can potentially be prevented with home modification. NEISS is a valuable tool to identify injury risks in the home.
- Public Health
- Fall
- Older People
Data availability statement
Data are available in a public, open-access repository.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
Data are available in a public, open-access repository.
Footnotes
X @eliseomaki
Contributors WS conceived the manuscript. EO conducted the analysis of total injury counts. WS, JO, and RYP developed a coding plan for case narratives and WS, JO, RYP coded narratives, while TB conceived the prevention recommendations for case narratives. BB and MA drafted the manuscript, and MA and WS reviewed and revised the manuscript. WS is the guarantor of the project and manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer-reviewed.
Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.