Soft tissue injury resulting from falling predicts a future major falling injury in the home dwelling elderly
- Mika Heralaa,
- Heikki Luukinena,
- Risto Honkanenc,
- Keijo Koskia,
- Pekka Laippalab,
- Sirkka-Liisa Kiveläa
- aDepartment of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Unit of General Practice, Oulu University Hospital, PO Box 5000, FIN-90401, Oulu, Finland, bTampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland, cResearch Institute of Public Health, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
- Dr Herala (Mika.Herala{at}Oulu.fi)
- Accepted 22 February 2000
Community dwelling elderly people with a history of falls are likely to sustain subsequent falls and injurious falls.1Elderly people who have had a previous fall with a fracture are at an increased risk of major injurious fall.2 However, the recurrence of major fall injuries other than fractures remains unknown. We conducted a prospective population-based cohort study among home dwelling elderly people to examine the risk of major injurious falls associated with a previous fall with serious soft tissue injury.
Methods and results
We recorded all falls according to ICD-9, 9th revision, (E880A-E899A) among all home living persons aged 70 years or over and resident in five rural municipalities in northern Finland on 1 January 1991. Fall recording from 1 January 1991 until 31 December 1996, was based on telephone contacts every third month and annual …
