Incident falls impair ability to function in hip-fracture survivors: A prospective study of 95 elderly women

• Published in: Archives of gerontology and geriatrics 2009-05, Vol.48 (3), p.397-400
• Main Authors: Di Monaco, Marco, Vallero, Fulvia, Tappero, Rosa, De Lauso, Lucia, De Toma, Elena, Cavanna, Alberto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - statistics & numerical data; Activities of Daily Living; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Discharged; Elderly women; Falls in the elderly; Female; Fractured hips; Hip fracture of elderly; Hip Fractures - rehabilitation; Hip Fractures - surgery; Humans; Incidence; Internal Medicine; Linear Models; Outcome of rehabilitation; Prospective Studies; Recovery of Function; Rehabilitation; Statistics, Nonparametric; Survivors
• ISSN: 0167-4943; 1872-6976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2008.03.008

Abstract The present study focused on home-dwelling women successfully discharged back to the community after a fall-related fracture of the hip. We investigated the role of incident falls in affecting ability to function in activities of daily living. Ninety-five of 103 consecutive women without cognitive impairment were recruited during in-patient rehabilitation following their first hip fracture. Functional independence in activities of daily living was assessed by using the Barthel Index (BI) score at discharge from in-patient rehabilitation and at a 6-month follow-up. Nineteen of the 95 women sustained one or more falls during a median observation time of 187 days. At a Mann–Whitney test, both BI scores assessed at the 6-month follow-up and gains in BI scores during the follow-up were significantly lower in the 19 fallers than in the 76 non-fallers ( p = 0.021 and p = 0.030, respectively), whereas no significant differences were found in baseline BI scores between the two groups. At linear multiple regression, we found a negative association between incident falls and both functional scores ( p = 0.01) and their gains ( p = 0.006) after adjustment for several confounders. We conclude that incident falls were significantly associated with a worse functional score in our sample of hip-fracture women.