Comparison of retrospective interviews and prospective diaries to facilitate fall reports among people with stroke

作者：Dorit Kunkel, Ruth Pickering, Ann Ashburn · 发表于：Age and Ageing · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.1093/ageing/afq177 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention、Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery、Cerebral Palsy and Movement Disorders

SIR—Monitoring falls is an important aspect of stroke rehabilitation. Retrospective methods include face-to-face or telephone interviews, postal questionnaires and medical note reviews [1–4]. Prospective methods include post cards, medical records, diaries and calendars as well as surveillance systems [1, 5–7]. Although prospective methods are considered preferable [1, 8, 9], it remains difficult to ascertain the accuracy of reporting methods as both may lead to over- or under-reporting [8, 10–17] and many factors influence recall [1, 8, 18–20]. Recall of falls in the previous year has reasonable sensitivity (80–89%) and specificity (91–95%) [5, 11, 16, 18] and produced better results than recall over shorter periods [16, 18] but recent studies have advocated short recall periods and intensive prospective (weekly or monthly) follow-up over longer periods [1, 5]. Little is known about the accuracy of fall reports among people with stroke. The present study examined the agreement between two fall-reporting methods (retrospective interviews and prospective fall diaries) over a 12-month period. This study formed part of a larger project predicting fall risk among stroke patients [21]. Ethical approval was obtained from the Southampton and South West Hampshire Local Research Ethics Committee. Consecutively hospitalised patients were recruited if they were independently mobile prior to stroke, able to give consent: those who failed a cognitive function test [22] which might have af...