PURPOSE
This study is to determine the predictive validity of the St. Thomas Risk Assessment Tool in Falling Elderly Inpatients (STRATIFY) for inpatients' fall risk.
METHODS
A literature search was performed to identify all studies published between 1946 and 2014 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, CINAHL, KoreaMed, NDSL and other databases, using the following key words; 'fall', 'fall risk assessment', 'fall screening', 'mobility scale', and 'risk assessment tool'. The QUADAS-II was applied to assess the internal validity of the diagnostic studies. Fourteen studies were analyzed using meta-analysis with MetaDisc 1.4.
RESULTS
The predictive validity of STRATIFY was as follows; pooled sensitivity .75 (95% CI: 0.72~0.78), pooled specificity .69 (95% CI: 0.69~0.70) respectively. In addition, the pooled sensitivity in the study that targets only the over 65 years of age was .89 (95% CI: 0.85~0.93).
CONCLUSION
The STRATIFY's predictive validity for fall risk is at a moderate level. Although there is a limit to interpret the results for heterogeneity between the literature, STRATIFY is an appropriate tool to apply to hospitalized patients of the elderly at a potential risk of accidental fall in a hospital.

Citations

• Development of a fall prediction model for community-dwelling older adults in South Korea using machine learning: a secondary data analysis
  Minhee Suh, Hyesil Jung, Juli Kim
  Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science.2024; 26(4): 288.     CrossRef
• Trends of Nursing Research on Accidental Falls: A Topic Modeling Analysis
  Yeji Seo, Kyunghee Kim, Ji-Su Kim
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2021; 18(8): 3963.     CrossRef
• Systematic Review and Meta-analysis for Usefulness of Fall Risk Assessment Tools in Adult Inpatients
  Seong-Hi Park, Eun-Kyung Kim
  Korean Journal of Health Promotion.2016; 16(3): 180.     CrossRef

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of infrared temperature measurements compared to axillary temperature in order to detect fever in patients.
METHODS
Studies published between 1946 and 2012 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane, KoreaMed, NDSL, KERIS and other databases were selected using the following key words: "infrared thermometer." QUADAS-II was utilized to assess the internal validity of the diagnostic studies. Selected studies were analyzed through a meta-analysis using MetaDisc 1.4.
RESULTS
Twenty-one diagnostic studies with high methodological quality were included representing 3,623 subjects in total. Results of the meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) of infrared tympanic thermometers were 0.73 (95% CI 0.70~0.75), 0.92 (95% CI 0.91~0.92), and 0.90, respectively. For axillary temperature readings, the pooled sensitivity was 0.67 (95% CI 0.62~0.73), the pooled specificity was 0.87 (95% CI 0.85~0.90), and the AUC was 0.80.
CONCLUSION
Infrared tympanic temperature can predict axillary temperature in normothermic and in febrile patients with an acceptable level of diagnostic accuracy. However, further research is necessary to substantiate this finding in patients with hyperthermia.