P14 Can retrospective report of falls provide an accurate snapshot of falling compared to prospective reporting in children and adolescents with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease?
Kennedy RA[1,2,3], McGinley JL[2,3], Ryan MM[1,2,3], Paterson, KL[3] and Carroll K[1,2]
- Department of Neurology, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Australia
- Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, Australia
- The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
A six-month prospective falls study in paediatric Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) reported falls incidence 33 times greater than typically developing children with a large number of injurious falls [1]. Whilst prospective studies are the gold standard of reporting falls [2], and provide important details of falls incidence and consequences, they are time- and labour-intensive, and burdensome on participants and families. This study aimed to determine if retrospective reporting of falls in the clinical setting is comparable to prospective reporting. Twenty-five children aged 4-17 years (mean 11.4, SD 3.5) with CMT participated in a six-month prospective falls study [1]. Retrospective report at the commencement of the prospective study included falls frequency, mechanism, location, surface type and injuries. Falls frequency was comparable between the two methods when divided into categories: non-fallers (retrospective 16%; prospective 12%), fallers (1-2 falls; retrospective 36%; prospective 44%) and recurrent fallers (>2 falls; retrospective 48%; prospective 44%). Children who fell infrequently, under-estimated falls recall from 6 months beforehand. Tripping was the most common mechanism reported both retrospectively (56%) and prospectively (76%). Most injuries sustained were cuts and grazes (retrospective 68%; prospective 48%). Interestingly, children under-estimated falls in home and community environments, and on flat surfaces (indoors and outdoors) when recalling falls history, and over-estimated the number of falls in the playground. Retrospective falls reporting is meaningful to ascertain fallers from non-fallers, mechanism of falls and injuries sustained in paediatric CMT. Reporting of falls in the outpatient clinic is valuable in determining the functional consequences of neuromuscular weakness.
- Kennedy, R.A., et al., Falls in paediatric Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease: a six-month prospective cohort study. Arch Dis Child, 2018 (under review, May 2018).
- Lamb, S.E., et al., Development of a Common Outcome Data Set for Fall Injury Prevention Trials: The Prevention of Falls Network Europe Consensus. J Am Geriatr Soc, 2005. 53(9): p. 1618-1622.