Objective: The primary aim was to determine the 12-month period prevalence of and time to osteoporosis treatment following minimal trauma hip fractures in patients who were recommended treatment by an orthogeriatrics service. The secondary aim was to determine the factors associated with receiving treatment including the impact of osteoporosis clinic follow-up.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients with minimal trauma hip fractures admitted at a tertiary hospital in Sydney between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2019 was performed. Baseline characteristics were collected from medical records. Osteoporosis treatment data were collected from patients and general practitioners. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine the factors associated with receiving osteoporosis treatment.
Results: There were 189 participants who consented to participate with a mean age of 84.6 years. Most (76.7%) were females, 18.5% were nursing home residents, 70.9% had normal cognition, 20.6% were taking osteoporosis treatment prior to admission, 61.9% had osteoporosis treatment recommendations documented on the discharge summary, and 10.1% were followed up in the osteoporosis clinic. Ninety-eight patients (51.9%) received treatment within the first 12 months after fracture with a median time to treatment of 90 days. Factors associated with receiving osteoporosis treatment within 12 months on multivariate analysis included normal cognition (p = 0.03), taking osteoporosis treatment prior to admission (p < 0.001), including treatment recommendations in the discharge summary (p = 0.006) and osteoporosis clinic follow-up (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Osteoporosis treatment after hip fracture remains suboptimal at this hospital. Patient and health service factors associated with treatment uptake could inform future quality improvement work.
Keywords: aged; hip fractures; osteoporosis.
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