Surveillance and fall prevention in the elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Falls in the elderly are one of the main causes of death that occur in this population group and there are multiple factors that can contribute to this, greatly affecting their autonomy and quality of life. Therefore, nursing interventions are essential to prevent this type of event. Objective: Evaluate the efficiency of external hip protectors on preventing falls in the elderly people. Methodology: Integrative Literature Review, using the PICO methodology, which included the formulation of an initial research question, research in scientific databases, analysis and interpretation of selected articles, as well as the synthesis and presentation of the results obtained. This review also considered the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) recommendation. The queries were performed under the “CINAHL Complete” database. Results: With the methodology applied, a final set of six studies were obtained, which do not sustain the efficiency of external hip protectors on the prevention of falls in the elderly. Conclusion: There is no scientific evidence that the external hip protectors are beneficial in reducing the number of falls in the elderly people. Focused interventions in many risk factors are more advantageous, comparatively to simple interventions. It is suggested the realization of more research studies relatively to this topic.