Table 1.

Trial characteristics for studies included in the systematic review

Trial (first author, year, country)	n included	Mean age (years or range)	Time frame patients followed	Population type	Exclusion criteria	Number of falls	Number of fallers
Vassallo, 2005, UK [31]a	135	83.8	Average LOS 14.6 (±7.5) days	Acute medical wards	Not given	29	22
Coker, 2003, Canada [34]	432	81	Average LOS 50 days	Geriatric rehabilitation	Not given	–	111
Papaioannou, 2004, Canada [35]a	620	78	Not given	Acute medical wards	Palliative, critical care	77	34
Haines, 2006, Australia [37]	122	79	4004 patient-days	Geriatric rehabilitation	Not given	59	26
Hill, 2004, Australia [37]	44	79.8	Not given	Geriatric rehabilitation	Unable to speak English or Italian, <65 years	–	7
Chiari, 2002, Italy [38]a	1,181	65–104	2 months	Mixed (internal medicine, geriatric rehab, oncology)	<65 years, hospitalised <48 h	–	51
Milisen, 2007 Belgium [39]	687	67.2	Average LOS 10.2 (±11.4) days	Geriatric and acute l medical wards	Incomplete data, hospitalised <48 h	120	82
Oliverb, 1997, UK [30]	217	79.5	8 weeks	Geriatric, acutely ill, stroke rehab, disabled	Not given	71	324
Oliverb, 1997, UK [30]	446	83	8 weeks	Geriatric, acutely ill, stroke rehab, disabled	Not given	79	–

^aExcluded from final meta-analysis as clinically heterogeneous population, including younger more acute patients;

^bexcluded from final meta-analysis as falls rather than fallers were event used as basis of predictive validity analysis;

LOS = length of stay.