The Impact of Hospital Bed Height and Gender on Fall Risk During Bed Egress

Abstract

Many patient falls in healthcare facilities can be attributed to bed ingress and egress tasks. While bed height has been used as a means of fall injury prevention, some positions may actually place the patient at a biomechanical disadvantage during ingress and egress tasks, increasing fall risk, but this interaction is not well understood. Therefore, this study investigated the interaction between bed height, gender, and biomechanical outcomes of ground reaction forces to determine fall risk changes as a function of bed height. Participants were 24 healthy individuals who completed 72 trials. Results showed the main effects of bed height and gender were significant (p<0.05), but not the interaction for both vertical and anterior-posterior forces. Males had significantly greater forces in both directions, and the force in both directions were lowest under approximately a 66 cm bed height.