A new multi-study analysis suggests patients 60 years of age and older who have experienced a hip fracture incur an increased risk both in the more-immediate aftermath of the fracture and years later. The new research was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
The analysis involved eight cohorts comprising a total of 122,808 participants in the Consortium on Health and Ageing: Network of Cohorts in Europe and United States project. The large-scale collaboration was designed to investigate the effects of ageing on health. Participants were monitored for approximately 12 years. During that time, 4,273 hip fractures and 27,999 deaths were documented.
While researchers determined the risk of death to be highest in the first year after a hip fracture, the adverse events were also linked with a nearly twofold increase in the risk of mortality eight years or more after the injury.
"It is important to implement appropriate measures to prevent the occurrence of hip fractures while more attention should be given to those older individuals that have already experienced a hip fracture in order to ensure better quality of life and survival in the elderly," said one the leaders of the new analysis, Dr. Michail Katsoulis of the Hellenic Health Foundation in Athens, Greece.
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