The Determination of Perceived Risk Factors and The Level of Knowledge for Falls in Older People Who Lives in a Nursing Home in Turkey

INTRODUCTION: This study was carried out as descriptive to evaluate the risk factors and knowledge level about falls of the older people living in a nursing home. METHODS: The study included 53 older people living in a nursing home. The data were collected with Personal Information Form, Fall Risk Factors Form, Falls Knowledge Form. Data were collected by face to face interview by visiting Nursing Home by researchers. RESULTS: In regards to the fall characteristics of the older individuals, approximately half of the older people fallen before (45.3%), 33.3 % of the older people were falled in nursing home. The number of risk factors of older people was 10.73+-4.35 and knowledge score was 7.20+-1.74. It was found that 67.9% of the older people stated preventability of falls was 20.8% of older people stated they didn't know how falls could be prevented. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: : It was determined that older people had a large a number of risk factors for falls and the knowledge level of the falls was not adequate, they saw the falls as normal and inevitable result of aging. In line with the findings obtained from the study, it is recommended that elderly individuals nursing homes should be evaluated in terms of fall risk factors and educational programs on fall risk factors and prevention of falls should be development increase the awareness of older people.