Why doesn the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model consider history of falls as an important predictor of falls?
This is one of the most common questions the study considered. In the initial study completed by Hendrich (Hendrich I Fall Risk Model), history of falls seemed to be a significant predictor, as other studies had reported. When the study sample size was increased to 1,135 patients (falls and non-falls), it became clear that many previous studies overestimated the importance of certain risk factors. In other words, when large numbers of control patients (non-falls) were tested against patients who fell, the predictive ability of a history of falls became insignificant. History of falls only appeared to be significant because it was always paired with the “real” risk factors – those contained within the H2Model. If someone is falling frequently, the fall risk factors are the true root cause, not the fact he/she has a history of falls.
