Objective: identifying the frequency of nursing diagnosis Risk for falls in the elderly and assess their risk factors. Method: retrospective study based on data recorded in the medical records of elderly patients in the Elderly Care Program. Data collection was done between May-June 2009, by means of a questionnaire with information on the epidemiological and diagnostic study, classified according to the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA-I), after approval by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Alfenas (protocol 23087.001613/2009-01). For tabulation and analysis of data the statistical program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used.  Descriptive statistics allowed us to describe and summarize the data obtained which were compared using the chi-square (X2) and Fisher's exact test. The statistical significance level adopted was 5% (p