Use of Benzodiazepines and Fall Risk Assessment in Older Adult Patients

Background: Among the most common changes in older adults are a decrease in muscle fibers, loss of muscle strength, visual deficit and difficulty maintaining balances, which are themselves factors that produce greater vulnerability to falls. The medications associated with a higher frequency of falls we have antihypertensive, antidiabetics and psychotropic such as benzodiazepines, producing this last one muscle weakness, ataxia, sedation, memory alterations of which muscle weakness could be what doubles the risk of falls in people over 65 years of age. Objective: To determine de risk of falling in older adult’s patients with benzodiazepine use. Methods: Participants in this cross-sectional study were evaluated with the Downtown fall risk index. For qualitative variables, percentages and frequencies will be used. And for the quantitative variables, measures of central dispersion such as median and mean will be made. The information obtained was analyzed in the statistical program SPSS version 25. Results: A total of 52 patients were included in the study. It was found that 98% of patients using benzodiazepines had a high risk of falls, of which 23% had already had a previous fall, 75% used hypotensive agents in addition to benzodiazepines and 38.5% had alteration in visual perception. Women had the highest risk at 67.4%. Conclusions: Assessment of fall risk should be part of the daily routine of all health personnel to prevent complications that can reduce the patient’s quality of life. It is important for older adults to have regular eye exams to detect possible vision problems in time. Keywords: Benzodiazepines; Accidental falls; Frail elderly; Geriatric assessment; Visual perception