Malnutrition's Role in Fall Risk

Status unconfirmed

Conditions studied: Falling Injury, Nutrition Disorder

In brief

Falls and falls related injuries are considered one of the most adverse events that a patient can experience. Several assessment instruments to assess and mitigate risks for falls have been developed. However, these instruments have not addressed nutritional risk factors. Weight loss and low hemoglobin levels are key components of Malnutrition. Malnutrition in the hospital setting is a significant concern and may play a role as a fall risk factor. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains a global anemia database. WHO has identified iron deficiency anemia, based on hemoglobin value alone as the most common, wide-spread nutritional deficiency worldwide. Anemia is present in 30% of the worlds population including industrialized nations. The consensus statement of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics / American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition simply defines adult under-nutrition as a continuum of inadequate intake along with a multitude of other factors. Weight loss occurs at multiple points along this continuum. this multiphase retrospective descriptive analysis hypothesizes that degree of weight loss and degree of Hgb decline may be fall risk factors.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03011918

Run by

Louis Stokes VA Medical Center

People needed

485

Starts

2013-04-01

Expected to finish

2018-12-01

Last updated by the study team

2017-01-06

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Veteran experienced a fall during a hospitalization between October 1, 2010 and October 31, 2012
• Veteran must have at least one documented weight a minimum of 24 months prior to admission

You may not qualify if…

• Adults who suffer from neurological disease or stroke
• Adults with documented orthopedic fracture in the past 12 months
• Documented amputation of a lower limb in the past 24 months
• Blindness
• History of volume overload, renal, cardiovascular or other in nature
• current alcoholic
• It is felt that a co-morbidity exists which makes the individuals weight history inaccurate, such as a recent prosthetic device alteration.

Where it is running

• LSCVAMed Center — Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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