Quality of life related to fear of falling and hip fracture in older women: a time trade off study
Eighty per cent of women over the age of 75 years of age say that they would rather be dead than admitted to a nursing home after a hip fracture, according to researchers from Australia in this week's BMJ.
During interviews with 194 women aged over 75 years, Mr Glenn Salkeld and colleagues from the University of Sydney and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital in New South Wales, found that hip fractures are perceived as a profound threat to quality of life. Any loss of ability to live independently in the commnuity has significant detrimental effect on their quality of life say the authors and four fifths would prefer to be dead than admitted to a nursing home with a hip fracture. Compared with other (time trade-off) studies the results suggest that women would perceive a hip fracture as worse than breast cancer, a heart attack or mild osteoarthritis, say the authors.
Hip fractures are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and almost all occur after a fall, explain Salkeld et al. Therefore they conclude that any interventions that can reduce the likelihood of falls and injury in older women will not only save lives but will prevent a significant reduction in their quality of life.
Contact:
Mr Glenn Salkeld, Senior Lecturer, Social and Public Health Economics Research Group, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Email: glenns@pub.health.usyd.edu.au