Determining the relationship between postoperative pain and the risk of falls in older adults

Introduction
Pain and falling are substantial components of older adults’ life. Despite the presence of several plausible mechanisms for pain to contribute to falling, very few studies have investigated this relationship in older adults. This study was designed to determine the relationship between falls associated and postoperative pain in surgical patients aged over 65 years.

Material and methods
This cross sectional and descriptive study was conducted at a public hospital between January and June, 2018. The study population consisted of postoperative patients aged 65 years and over, hospitalised in the Urology, General Surgery, and Orthopaedic clinics between the study dates. After demographic knowledge was collected, the Itaki Fall Risk Scale and Visual Analogue Scale were used for the risk of falling and pain level assessments, respectively.

Results
The mean age of the participants was 72.14 ±8.85 years. A statistically significant relationship was observed between pain levels and the risk of falling in the postoperative period (p = 0.000). The risk of falling increased in line with pain levels. Patients who were single (p = 0.01), who had no social security (p = 0.002), and with chronic disease had a significantly higher risk of falling (p = 0.003).

Conclusions
Pain in older adults may increase the risk of falling after surgery. In clinical and academic studies, it is recommended that pain assessments be included in older adults for the risk of postoperative fall.