We conducted a retrospective observational study to examine the contribution of hip fractures to fragility fracture burden in Ontario, Canada. Outcomes included: index and subsequent fracture type and date, patients requiring surgery, 30-day post-surgery complication rate, 1-year mortality rate and total healthcare cost per-patient in the 1st year after index fracture (IF).
115,776 patients were included; median age was 81 (IQR: 74–87) years and 72.3% were female. Hip fracture was the most common IF (27.3%, n=31,613), and 32.4% (n=10,254) of index hip fractures occurred in patients ≤80 years of age. Proportion of IF that were hip fractures by age was: 66-70, 12.1% (n=2,179); 71-75, 17.3% (n=3,092); 76-80, 24.2% (n=4,983); 81-86, 31.2% (n=7,524); and 86+, 39.3% (n=13,835). Hip fracture was also the most common 2nd fracture (27.8%, n=5,745); occurring as the 2nd fracture in ≥19% of cases for all IF sites examined, often after hip (33.0%) or pelvic (32.3%) IF, and least often after tibia/fibula/knee (23.3%) or radius/ulna (19.4%) IFs. Among patients requiring surgery related to their IF (n=44,949) and those experiencing complications 30 days post-surgery (n=8,868), respectively, 64.1% and 71.9% had a hip fracture. One-year all-cause mortality was 26.2% after hip IF and 15.9% in the entire cohort; hip fracture had the highest mortality rate of all IF sites examined, followed by femur (21.9%). Total mean (± SD) healthcare cost per-patient (in 2017 Canadian dollars) in the 1st year after IF was the 2nd highest for hip IF ($62,793 ± 44,438), with femur IF having the highest cost ($65,490 ± 54,116).
These data highlight the significant morbidity, mortality and financial burden of hip fragility fractures in adults aged >65 and the urgent need to initiate secondary fracture prevention measures after a fragility fracture occurring at any site to help reduce subsequent hip fracture and associated burden.