Risk factors associated with hospitalization for unintentional falls: Wisconsin hospital discharge data for patients aged 65 and over.

To identify risk factors associated with hospitalizations for falls in Wisconsin in patients aged 65 and older.This study was a cross-sectional study of year 2000 hospital inpatient discharge records for patients aged 65 and older who did not have a diagnosis-related group code indicating rehabilitation, obtained from the Wisconsin Bureau of Health Information. The database includes all discharges from all non-federal Wisconsin hospitals.Of 223,085 discharged older adults, 6.9% had an unintentional fall diagnosis. Independent predictors of an unintentional fall diagnosis were age, sex, time of year of discharge, region of residence, alcohol-related problems, dementia, Parkinson's disease, mechanical and motor problems, altered consciousness, convulsions/epilepsy, anemia, and glaucoma.Alcohol-related problems and mechanical and motor problems significantly increased the risk of a fall diagnosis in hospitalized patients aged 65 and over.