This dataset presents the age-standardised rate of emergency hospital admissions due to falls in individuals aged 65 and over. It serves as a key indicator of frailty, injury risk, and the effectiveness of fall prevention strategies in older populations.
Rationale
Reducing emergency admissions due to falls in older adults is a major public health priority. Falls are a leading cause of injury, loss of independence, and mortality in this age group. Monitoring this indicator supports the development of targeted interventions, community support services, and healthcare planning to reduce fall-related harm.
Numerator
The numerator is the number of emergency hospital admissions for individuals aged 65 and over with a primary diagnosis of injury (ICD-10 codes S00 to T98) and an external cause of a fall (ICD-10 codes W00 to W19). Admissions are included if they are emergency admissions (episode order = 1, admission method starts with '2'). Data are sourced from the Secondary Uses Service (SUS).
Denominator
The denominator is the resident population aged 65 and over, based on the 2021 Census.
Caveats
In 2023, NHS England introduced a methodological change requiring Trusts to report Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) to the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) by July 2024. Early adopter sites began reporting from 2021/22, with others following in 2022/23 and 2023/24. Some Trusts previously reported this activity under Admitted Patient Care, and the shift to ECDS may reduce the number of admissions captured by this indicator. NHSE has advised that SDEC activity cannot currently be accurately identified in existing data flows, and the impact of this change is expected to vary by diagnosis, particularly for injuries and external causes.
External References
Fingertips Public Health Profiles – Emergency Admissions for Falls (65+)
Localities Explained
This dataset contains data based on either the resident locality or registered locality of the patient, a distinction is made between resident locality and registered locality populations:
- Resident Locality refers to individuals who live within the defined geographic boundaries of the locality. These boundaries are aligned with official administrative areas such as wards and Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs).
- Registered Locality refers to individuals who are registered with GP practices that are assigned to a locality based on the Primary Care Network (PCN) they belong to. These assignments are approximate—PCNs are mapped to a locality based on the location of most of their GP surgeries. As a result, locality-registered patients may live outside the locality, sometimes even in different towns or cities.
This distinction is important because some health indicators are only available at GP practice level, without information on where patients actually reside. In such cases, data is attributed to the locality based on GP registration, not residential address.
Click here to explore more from the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Partnerships Outcome Framework.