Prevalence of falls in adult and older adult psychiatric patients in China: A systematic review and comprehensive meta-analysis of observational studies

Falls have significant health consequences and are common in psychiatric patients. Findings on the prevalence of falls in Chinese adult and older adult psychiatric inpatients have been inconsistent. This meta-analysis examined the pooled prevalence of falls in adult and older adult psychiatric inpatients in China. Both English (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library) and Chinese (China National Knowledge Interne, WanFang Data and SinoMed) databases were searched independently by three reviewers. The pooled prevalence of falls and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using the random effects model were calculated. A total of 39 studies covering 204,234 inpatients were analyzed. The pooled prevalence of falls in adult and older adult (≥60 years) patients was 3% (95% CI: 1.8%-5%) and 7.3% (95%CI: 5.0%–10.6%), respectively. Subgroup analyses revealed that the prevalence of falls was significantly associated with the psychiatric diagnostic criteria and study sample size. This meta-analysis found that the prevalence of falls among adult and older adult psychiatric patients in China was significantly high, although less than that was reported from Western psychiatric inpatient settings.