One-year mortality among elderly people after hospitalization due to fall-related fractures: comparison with a control group of matched elderly

Abstract

Fall-related fractures among the elderly represent an important public health problem. Severe fractures have been related to increased risk of death. In order to investigate the mortality profile of elderly individuals with severe fractures, 250 patients aged 60 years and over, hospitalized due to fall-related fractures and 250 elderly without fractures living in the local community were followed-up for one year. They were matched according to sex, age, time of hospitalization and neighborhood. Deaths were identified using probabilistic linkage of the research dataset and the local mortality registry. The one-year cumulative mortality was 25.2% in the case of individuals with severe fractures and 4% for those individuals without. The mortality distribution was not homogeneous across the follow-up period. Two-thirds of deaths among the elderly individuals hospitalized due to fracture occurred within the first 3 months, whereas mortality among those individuals without fractures took place later. Heart disease, pneumonia, GI bleeding, sepsis, and pulmonary embolism, diabetes and stroke were important causes of one-year mortality.

Falls among the non-institutionalized elderly in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil: prevalence and associated factors

“…4 Studies show that such injuries are among the leading causes of death among older people and falls account for up to two thirds of accidents involving the elderly, representing one of the main predictors of morbidity and mortality. [5][6][7][8] Falls in elderly people may indicate the beginning of frailty or acute disease. Besides the previously mentioned risk of death, falls result in constant injuries and fractures, compromise activities of daily living, increase rates of institutionalization, generate a decline in general health and increase fear of falling among the elderly, which, in turn, increases the risk of subsequent falls.…”

The mortality burden attributable to nontrauma fracture for privately insured adults with epilepsy

“…Although the burden of premature mortality varied among epilepsy‐related factors (eg, etiology), the standardized mortality ratios were still elevated for most studies regardless of age, sex, etiology, type, and time since diagnosis. In the elderly general population, fracture is associated with mortality and chronic diseases, and postfracture chronic disease development may be involved in the fracture‐mortality association . The most common causes of death for individuals with epilepsy include chronic diseases (eg, cardiovascular and respiratory disease), injuries (eg, seizures, falls), and cancer .…”

Smart Homes for Elderly Healthcare—Recent Advances and Research Challenges

“…Continuous monitoring and real time assessment of health can be useful in balance and fall analysis, rehabilitation following an injury, and can also enable early detection of physical and cognitive impairment. For example, gait patterns tend to differ from its normal behavior at the early onset of some neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s [ 135 , 136 ]. A person at the primary phase of Parkinson’s tends to make small and shuffled steps, and may also experience difficulties in performing key walking events, such as starting, stopping, and turning [ 16 , 17 ].…”