Extraction and Analysis of Risk Elements for Korean Homecare Patients with Senile Dementia

• Published in: The journal of behavioral health services & research 2016, Vol.43 (1), p.116-126
• Main Authors: Choi, Mi-Hyun, Kim, Hyung-Sik, Kim, BoSeong, Lee, Jung-Chul, Park, Sung-Jun, Jeong, Ul-Ho, Baek, Ji-Hye, Kim, Hyun-Jun, Lim, Dae-Woon, Chung, Soon-Cheol
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accident Prevention; Accidents; Activities of Daily Living; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aggression; Alzheimer Disease - nursing; Behavior; Biomedical engineering; Caregivers; Collision dynamics; Community and Environmental Psychology; Delphi method; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Eating; Education; Egress; Elder care; Engineering; Extraction; Female; Health care delivery; Health Informatics; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Health Psychology; Health risks; Health services; Home Care Services; Home health care; Humans; Injuries; Investigations; Male; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental health; Patients; Psychiatry; Public Health; Questionnaires; Republic of Korea; Research centers; Risk; Risk analysis; Risk Assessment; Science; Self injury; Senility; Slip; Studies; Violence
• ISSN: 1094-3412; 1556-3308
• DOI: 10.1007/s11414-014-9429-4

The purpose of this study is to provide information for the protection of Korean homecare patients with senile dementia by investigating accident cases using a survey. With the survey of accident cases, the caregivers of 55 Korean homecare patients with senile dementia (75.9 ± 7.0 years) were administered the short form of the Samsung Dementia Questionnaire (S-SDQ) and an activities of daily living (ADL) test. Twelve risk elements were extracted. The order of frequency of occurrence from highest to lowest was “egress,” “fall,” “violence,” “collision,” “gas accident,” “slip,” “faucet misuse,” “overeating,” “drop,” “discharge,” “weird eating,” and “self-injury.” The percentage of risk elements resulting in physical harm was 40.1% across all risk elements. The risk elements resulting in the most physical harm were “fall,” “collision,” “slip,” and “drop,” respectively. Regarding the location of occurrence of risk elements, risk elements resulting in physical harm showed no significant differences between indoors and outdoors. Some risk elements, such as “egress,” “fall,” and “gas accident” happened concurrently with more than four other elements, while “collision,” “drop,” and “violence” happened together with more than two other elements. “Slip” happened significantly more often in the low ADL score group, while “gas accident” happened significantly more often in the high ADL score group. This study provides basic information about monitoring factors to protect senior homecare patients with senile dementia.