Anotace:
Aim: The aims were to analyze studies determining the validity of tools assessing the risk of falls in adult inpatients and to define a suitable tool to be used in acute and long-term care for preventing patient falls. Design: A review study. Methods: The studies were searched using predefined criteria in the electronic databases EBSCO, CINAHL, Medline, ScienceDirect, Wiley Library Online, ProQuest and ScienceDirect over a period of 2005–2015. After sorting the retrieved materials according to the PRISMA recommendations, a total of 12 articles were analyzed. Results: The validity of 11 tools for assesing the risk of falls in inpatients was determined. The studies varied in validity results, with one of the reasons being differences in design of the studies. The most frequently validated tools the Morse Fall Scale and Hendrich II for acute and long-term care and STRATIFY for acute care showed rather varied parameters defining their validity, with sensitivity ranging from 34% to 95% and specificity from 2% to 91%. Validity also depended on cut-off scores of the validated tools. Conclusion: Although one of the most frequently used tools for assessing the risk of falls in inpatients is the Morse Fall Scale, none of the tested tools is clearly recommended as the most suitable one for preventing falls in acute and long-term care settings explicitly showing high validity results.