Development and validation of the Hospital FES-I: A scale to assess concerns about falling in hospitalised older adults

Concerns-about-falling are common in hospitalised older adults and are associated with poorer recovery, increased fall risk post-discharge, and hospital readmission. However, there is currently no validated tool for assessing concerns about falling in inpatient settings. Existing tools, such as the Short Falls Efficacy Scale International (Short FES-I), were developed for community-dwelling adults and may not adequately capture concerns relevant to hospital settings. To address this gap, we created a new questionnaire (called the 'Hospital FESI') to identify older adults with concerns-about-falling in hospital. This questionnaire was created with patients and healthcare professionals. This study aims to validate the scale in 250 older adults in hospital by assessing its: 1. validity as a measure of concerns-about-falling in hospital ; 2. reliability and internal consistency, and; 3. predictive utility for identifying older adults at risk of poor functional recovery and hospital readmission up to 3-months after they leave hospital (cut-off points).