A new analysis of a number of studies indicates that elderly men and women aged 60 years and older who have experienced a hip fracture are at increased risk of dying – not only in the short-term after the fracture, but also within a defined period after the injury.
The analysis included eight studies with 122,808 participants in the Consortium on Health and Ageing: Network of Cohorts in Europe and the US (CHANCES) project, a large collaboration of European and US studies to investigate the effects of ageing on health. Although the risk of death was highest in the first year after the hip fracture, fractures were also linked with a nearly two-fold increased risk of dying eight years or more after the injury, noted co-lead author Vassiliki Benetou.
“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 study co-author Michail Katsoulis.
Source: Wiley Newsroom
Reference: Katsoulis, M., Benetou, V., Karapetyan, T., et al. (2017) Excess mortality after hip fracture in elderly persons from Europe and the USA: the CHANCES project. J. Intern. Med. doi: 10.1111/joim.12586
