Falls are one of the more serious adverse events associated with antihypertensive treatment, reducing an individual’s health-related quality of life and increasing the risk of hospitalisation. Clinical guidelines recommend that when prescribing antihypertensives, physicians should take into account the likelihood of both the benefits and the harms from treatment.
This software, called the STRATIFY-Falls Risk Calculator, allows individuals to better understand the likelihood of experiencing a serious fall as a result of antihypertensive therapy. The calculator estimates an individual’s risk of hospitalisation or death from a serious fall in the next 1, 5 and 10 years. It is designed to be used in a primary care setting using information routinely available in a patient’s electronic health record. The calculator has been developed and validated in a nationally representative population with the following characteristics:
· Aged 40 years or older
· A systolic blood pressure reading between 130-179 mm Hg (indicating antihypertensive prescription maybe appropriate)
Details of the calculator development and external validation have been published in a peer-reviewed article and can be found here: Archer et al. (2022) BMJ http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070918
The STRATIFY-AKI Falls Calculator software allows you to implement the underlying algorithm in R Studio version 3.6.3 (or above) or STATA version 16.1 (or above). This software available for download for academic or scholarly use through the Software Store. If you are interested in a commercial licence, please contact enquiries@innovation.ox.ac.uk referencing project number 20753.