Omfattande ansträngningar har gjorts för att minska risken för fallskador bland äldre men för de som bor på särskilt boende har det visats sig vara svårt att utforma effektiva åtgärder. En skada uppstår när kroppens vävnad utsätt för energi som överstiger dess toleranströskel. Åtgärder för att minska energin vid en olycka har tillämpats inom många områden med mycket goda resultat. Antagandet om att energireduktion minskar risken för skada bygger på fysikens grundläggande lagar och benämns inom skadepreventionsområdet för energiprincipen. Idén om ett stötdämpande golv som energireducerande åtgärd för att motverka fallskador dök upp i vetenskaplig litteratur på tidigt 1990-tal, och sedan dess har speciella golv utvecklats och testats i laboratoriemiljö. Syftet med denna licentiatuppsats är att utvärdera effekter av ett stötdämpande golv på särskilt boende för äldre personer. De aspekter som studerats är den potentiellt fallskadepreventiva effekten för de boende samt påverkan på vårdpersonalens arbetsförhållanden. Resultatet visar att golvet minskar risken för skador samt att personalen är positiva till att arbeta i lokaler med stötdämpande golv. / Fall injuries pose a global and national public health problem. Whilst all elderly are at risk of fall injuries, the risk of injury is 10 times as high amongst elderly living in nursing homes compared to elderly living at home. An injury occurs when body tissue is subjected to external kinetic energy exceeding the tissue's tolerance. Reducing this energy in order to prevent injuries has been successfully applied in many injury prevention fields though less so within fall injury prevention. However, the idea of a shock-absorbing floor as an energy reducing measure to prevent fall injuries has been suggested in scientific literature since the early 1990s and since then, different floors have been developed and tested. The aim of this licentiate thesis is to investigate the potential fall injury reducing effects of a shock-absorbing flooring in a nursing home, as well as the staff's experience of working in premises with shock-absorbing flooring. The results show that for women the risk of injury following a fall on the shock-absorbing flooring was 59% less compared to falls on ordinary floors, after adjustment for age, BMI, vision impairments, and cognitive impairment. BMI was the only covariate to influence the results, with a lower BMI increasing the risk of injury. With regards to the staff’s experience of the shock-absorbing flooring, the nurses felt that the floor defused the falls and in that way reduced the risk of injury. They were also positively surprised by the change in acoustics. There were also some challenges associated with the floor, for example, adapting to walking on the floor and manoeuvring equipment (eg hoists). The results suggest, that for an elderly and frail population, shock-absorbing flooring seems to be an effective injury prevention measure. The intervention was generally perceived as positive by the staff, even though some negative aspects were observed. These aspects need to be studied further. / <p>Paper 2 i den trycka avhandlingen ingick som manuscript, med titeln Working in a nursing home with Impact Absorbing Flooring - a qualitative study on the experiences of licensed practical nurses. </p><p>Artikeln är nu publicera nu publicerad med titeln Effects of Impact-Absorbing Flooring in Residential Care from the Perspectives of Enrolled Nurses. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-38254 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Gustavsson, Johanna |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Centrum för personsäkerhet (from 2013), Karlstad |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary, info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Karlstad University Studies, 1403-8099 ; 51 |
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