Materials
Medical records. The participants’ home
health medical records were used to confirm the
data collected during the participant interviews.
The researchers collected basic demographic
information to describe the sample, including age,
gender, ethnicity, insurance, and the reason for
referral to home health. Additional information
accessed from the medical record included the
number of falls reported, the number of medical
diagnoses, and the number of prescribed
medications. The fall risk factors derived from the
medical records (age, gender, the number of falls
reported, the number of medical diagnoses, and the
number of prescribed medications) were entered
into the regression analysis. Written consent from
all of the participants granted access to their
medical records.