Development and Validation of A New Tool for Assessing Risk of Falls in Acute Psychiatric Settings

Aim:To create and validate a tool, in English and in Italian, to assess risk to fall in patients hospitalized acute psychiatric settings. Materials and Methods:upon literature review, a new scale was created and administered to the patients of two psychiatric services in different Italian hospitals. Validity and reliability of the scale were assessed by means of factor analysis, content validity index, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Results:The scale consists of 11 items (CVI-S = 90.9%); 7 clinical experts have positively judged comprehensibility and the uniqueness of the items. 123 patients were screened (at admission, and after 24 and 48 hours), 10 of them reported falls; with a cut-off of 11 points, the scale showed 100% sensitivity and 80.2% specificity. Inter-rater reliability was high (Pearson's r = 0.93). Conclusions: the new scale seems easy to use and capable of predicting falls in psychiatric patients admitted to acute hospital units.