Australian and New Zealand journal of public health
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Aust N Z J Public Health · Dec 1996
Cohort study of risk of institutionalisation after hip fracture.
The purpose of this study was to describe the rate of permanent placement in aged care institutions (nursing homes and hostels) after hip fracture and to assess whether or not hip fracture is an independent risk factor for institutionalisation. It was a cohort study with median follow-up time of 14 months. Subjects were 291 people living in the community in western Sydney: 13] with hip fractures and 160 controls. ⋯ The age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio for hip fracture and institutionalisation was 5.1 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 2.2 to 11.9). Adjusting for multiple health-related factors reduced the strength of association but the hazard ratio remained high at 4.0 (CI 1.7 to 9.5). The risk of institutionalisation after hip fracture is high; this is only partly explained by the poor pre-fracture health status of many people who fracture their hips.