Schemitsch E, Adachi JD, Brown JP, et al. - Researchers found a second fracture at the hip in one in four patients after any index fracture and in one in three patients with an index hip fracture, on average within 1.5 years. It was shown that the index hip fracture was correlated with high mortality and post-surgery complication rates and healthcare costs relative to other fractures. In post-fracture patients, these data support focusing on early hip fracture prevention efforts.

• Between January 1, 2011, and March 31, 2015, a cohort of 115,776 patients (72.3% female) aged > 65 (median age 81) with an index fracture occurring at skeletal sites related to age-related bone loss was distinguished using health services data from Ontario, Canada, and followed until March 31, 2017.

• Hip fracture was the most common second fracture (27.8%), occurring in ≥ 19% of cases after each index fracture site and most frequently (33.0%) after hip index fracture.

• As per the findings, the median time to a second fracture of the hip was ~ 1.5 years post-index event.

• The results showed that the patients with index hip fracture contributed the most to fracture-related initial surgeries (64.1%) and post-surgery complications (71.9%) and had the second-highest total mean healthcare cost per patient in the first year after index fracture ($62,793 ± 44,438).

• After index hip fracture, one-year mortality (any cause) was 26.2% vs. 15.9% in the entire cohort, and 25.9% after second hip fracture.