Re-evaluating the Morse Fall Scale in obstetrics and gynecology wards and determining optimal cut-off scores for enhanced risk assessment: A retrospective survey

• Published in: PloS one 2024-09, Vol.19 (9), p.e0305735
• Main Authors: Mao, Bijun, Jiang, Huiping, Chen, Yan, Wang, Chunsheng, Liu, Luping, Gu, Huifeng, Shen, Ya, Zhou, Peihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - prevention & control; Accidents; Accuracy; Adult; Aged; Demographic aspects; Dexmedetomidine; Diagnosis; Electronic Health Records; Electronic medical records; Falls; Falls (Accidents); Female; Geriatrics; Gynecology; Hospital patients; Hospitals; Humans; Long term health care; Medical records; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Medicine, Experimental; Middle Aged; Nurses; Obstetrics; Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Hospital - standards; Patient safety; Performance evaluation; Performance prediction; Physiology; Prevention; Rehabilitation; Retrospective Studies; Risk assessment; Risk Assessment - methods; Risk factors; ROC Curve; Safety and security measures; Sensitivity analysis; Surveys; Validity
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305735

This study aims to examine the validity of the MFS by analyzing the electronic medical records on fall risk in obstetrics and gynecology wards and determine the optimal cut-off score of the Morse Fall Scale. A retrospective survey. The research was conducted in an Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital and a general hospital. The sample included 136 fall inpatients and 120 no-fall inpatients recruited from January 1st, 2020, to July 10th, 2022. The Morse Fall Scale was analyzed using the gold standard of patients who fell while hospitalized, assessing the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and Kappa. At cut-off scores of 40, 45,50, and 55, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.772, 0.761, 0.749, and 0.763, respectively. The Youden index was 0.543, 0.521, 0.498, and 0.525, while Kappa values were 0.540, 0.518, 0.490, and 0.515. Sensitivity was 0.735, 0.713, 0.640, and 0.625; specificity was 0.808, 0.808, 0.858, and 0.900. The positive predictive values were 0.813, 0.808, 0.837, and 0.876, and the negative predictive values were 0.729, 0.713, 0.678, and 0.679. Accuracy were 0.770, 0.758, 0.742, and 0.754. The Morse Fall Scale demonstrates good predictive performance for assessing fall risk in gynecology and obstetrics wards. The optimal cut-off score is 40.