This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0)If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore characteristics of and risk factors for accidental inpatient falls. Methods: Participants were classified as fallers or non-fallers based on the fall history of inpatients in a tertiary hospital in Seoul between June 2014 and May 2015. Data on falls were obtained from the fall report forms and data on risk factors were obtained from the electronic nursing records. Characteristics of fallers and non-fallers were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Risk factors for falls were identified using univariate analyses and logistic regression analysis. Results: Average length of stay prior to the fall was 21.52 days and average age of fallers was 61.37 years. Most falls occurred during the night shifts and in the bedroom and were due to sudden leg weakness during ambulation. It was found that gender, BMI, physical problems such elimination, gait, vision and hearing and medications such as sleeping pills, antiarrhythmics, vasodilators, and muscle relaxant were statistically significant factors affecting falls. Conclusion: The findings show that there are significant risk factors such as BMI and history of surgery which are not part of fall assessment tools. There are also items on fall assessment tools which are not found to be significant such as mental status, emotional unstability, dizziness, and impairment of urination. Therefore, these various risk factors should be examined in the fall risk assessments and these risk factors should be considered in the development of fall assessment tools.

We use a scale mainly for quantification when we study the psychological characteristics that we cannot observe. The utilization of a scale is frequent in scientific educational studies. The convenience offered by Likert scale, which is among the most frequently used, enable us to grasp characteristic attitude or recognition in students, and evaluate them against an affective domain. But a lot of errors occur, and has been noted as well in the case of utilizing Likert scale in the process. A central tendency in the utilization of Likert scale appears in this study, and the trend analyzes according to study objects and study contents, but we intend to find a way to utilize Likert scale. The results of study made on our countryside students show that the answers tend to get concentrated and a central tendency appears. Our countryside students were aware of the eyes surroundings them, have respect for elders through social experiences, and have had troubles with differentiated expression or personality in the group and cultural environments. According to the object of study, the central tendency appears more among older students than younger students, more among general students than gifted students. In the contents of study, the central tendency has been given more appearance in scope and their exposure has relatively been in large domain. Therefore when utilizing Likert scale in scientific education study, an error of central tendency appears as if they are results of the study. So, when applying the Likert scale to scientific study, we need to consider sociocultural environment, characteristics of an object and contexts of study. This enables avoiding dependence on numerical value of the utilization results, and interpret them correctly.