Background: Hip fracture patients have, in several studies, been shown to have excessive mortality. There is, however, a lack of mortality data, in comparison to incidence data, from the last decade in particular.
Objective: To study short- and long-term mortality in a population-based cohort of hip fracture patients over the last decade and compare it to the background population.
Patients and methods: Fragility hip fracture patients in the two most southern counties in Norway who experienced fractures in 2004 and 2005 were studied. For each patient, three controls were randomly recruited from the background population matched for age, sex, and residency. Overall, age-, gender-, and group-specific mortality rates were calculated.
Results: A total of 942 (267 male and 675 female) patients with a fragility hip fracture were identified. In the hip fracture patients, overall mortality rate after 1 year was 21.3% (males 30.7% and females 19.1%, P < 0.005) and, after 5 years, 59.0% (males 70.0% and females 54.6%, P < 0.005). The corresponding figures for matched controls were 5.6% (males 5.9%, females 5.4%, P = 0.6) and 24.9% (males 25.9%, females 24.5%, P = 0.4), respectively. A statistically significant difference was seen in the log-rank statistical analysis between hip fracture patients and controls, both in males (P < 0.0005) and females (P < 0.0005), and for age groups 50-80 years (P < 0.0005) and 80 years and older (P < 0.0005).
Conclusion: Mortality in males and females with hip fractures is high not only in the first year after fracture, but remains higher than in the background population during 5 years of follow-up. The high mortality in hip fracture patients remains a challenge both in middle-aged and elderly individuals. Optimization of post-fracture treatment and care could reduce mortality of hip fracture in middle-aged and elderly individuals.
Keywords: hip fracture; mortality; population-based study; survival.