PURPOSE: To identify age, gender, medication, seasons and place of fall, and areas of the fractures from the fall among the hospitalized elderly patients in order to provide the basic data for future fall prevention program for the elderly.
METHODS
This study was conducted for 106 elderly patients admitted into a university hospital by fractures from the fall during the period from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999. Data on the age, gender, medication, season and place of the fall, areas of the fracture were collected based on their medical records.
RESULT
The age range of the subjects were from 60 to 96 years old. The subjects were aged between 60-69 years old 49(46.2%), between 70-79 years old 31(29.2%), between 80-89 years old 24(22.6%), and over 90 years old 2(1.9%). Male patients comprised was 34(28.3%), while female patients comprised 76(71.7%). The fall occurred in Winter most frequently 34(32%). The place of the fall included room 81(76.4%), streets 13(12.3%), bathroom 6(5.7%), stair 4(3.8%), and mountain 2(1.9%). Twenty-two subjects (20.8%) had medication regularly, while 84 subjects (79.2%) had no medication. The areas of the fracture from the fall included upper extremities 20(18.9%) and lower extremities 86(81.1%). Radius fracture (7.5%) was the area where the fracture occurred most frequently in upper extremities and femur fracture (52.8%) was the area where the fracture occurred most frequently in lower extremities. A significant difference was found in the fracture area by age, season and place of the fall (p<.05). No significant difference was found in the fracture area by gender and medication. In all age groups, seasons and places of the fall, occurrence of fracture in lower extremity was significantly higher than that in upper extremity.

The purpose of the study was to identify the effect of structured patients education had on prevention of osteoporosis, with fracture and the resulting of life style changes in patients. In this study, a non equivalent control group pre and a post test design was employed. Data were collected through an interview process using questionnaires from April to December of 1999. The subjects, consisting of 59 patients with fractures and over 40 years of age, were diagnosed in K University Hospital. This study tested the patients knowledge at three times. The times were before the program 2 weeks into the program, and 6 months after education program. Life style change related to prevention of osteoporosis was shown twice (before and 6 months after the education program) in the experimental group, and control group went without it. The instruments used for this study were developed by literature review according to a reliability test. Data was analyzed using X2 test and t test to determine similarities between the experimental and control groups. The hypothesis was tested using repeated measures of ANOVA, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results of the study were summarized as follows: 1. The first hypothesis was accepted: a higher level of knowledge about osteoporosis was found in experimental groups who received education than to the control group during the period (F=19.82, p=.0001). 2. The second hypothesis was accepted: a higher level of life style changes about osteoporosis on experimental group were recorded than as compared to control group (t=3.55, p=.001). 3. The third hypothesis was accepted: the higher the knowledge about osteoporosis the higher the level of performance of life style changes about prevention of osteoporosis (r=.600, p=.0001). In conclusion, structured patient education in patient with fractures improved the level of knowledge about osteoporosis and more likely undergo of life style changes 6 months after the education program. Also reeducation would be needed 6 months after program ends. That is structured patient education in pamphlet form would be very effective in nursing intervention that may to result in life style changes. Therefore further research is needed to reinforce the education material and to generalize the education effect.