Development of services for older patients with falls and fractures in England: successes, failures, lessons and controversies

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Falls Among the Elderly in Unaizah City, Saudi Arabia

Objectives

Falls and fall-related consequences are a major public health problem in the elderly. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of falls and fall-related risk factors among elderly individuals in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted between January and October 2019 among 280 elderly patients aged >60 years old attending 10 randomly selected primary healthcare centres in Unaizah City, Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using the validated 10-item Missouri Alliance for Home Care (MAHC-10) fall risk assessment tool.

Results

A total of 269 participants were included in the study (response rate: 96.1%). The prevalence of falls over the preceding year was 31.6%. Females fell more frequently than males (34.5% versus 28.5%) and most falls occurred indoors (84.7%). Various risk factors were associated with fall risk including being aged >80 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 5.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.66–16.14), polypharmacy (aOR: 2.40, 95% CI: 1.01–5.71) and environmental factors (aOR: 2.79, 95% CI: 1.24–6.28). However, more educated participants had a lower risk of falling (aOR: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.09–0.77). There was also a significant association with the MAHC-10 fall risk score (P = 0.043).

Conclusion

There was a high prevalence of falls among the elderly in Unaizah City. Various factors were associated with falls including advanced age, polypharmacy, age-related changes and environmental factors. As the majority of fall events occurred indoors, home safety improvements are recommended. Moreover, additional larger-scale research is necessary regarding fall-related risk factors and fall prevention initiatives among elderly individuals in Saudi Arabia.

Hip fracture audit: Creating a 'critical mass of expertise and enthusiasm for hip fracture care'?

The care of frail older people admitted with hip fracture has improved greatly over the last half-century, largely as a result of combined medical care and surgical care and the rise - over the last four decades - of large-scale hip fracture audit. A series of European initiatives evolved. The first national hip fracture audit was the Swedish Rikshöft in the late 1980s, and the largest so far is the UK National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD), launched in 2007. An external evaluation of the NHFD demonstrated statistically significant increases in survival at up to 1 year associated with improved early care: with rising geriatrician involvement and falling delays to surgery, and from which lessons have been learned. Comparable national audits have emerged since in northern Europe and in Australia and New Zealand, and most recently in Spain and Japan. Like the NHFD, these use the synergy of agreed clinical standards and regular - ideally continuous - audit feedback that can prompt and monitor clinical and service developments, often demonstrating both rising quality and improved cost effectiveness. In addition, important benchmarking studies of hip fracture care have been reported from India and China, both of which face huge challenges in providing care of fragility fractures in populations characterised by first-generation mass ageing. The 'halo effect' of the impact of growing expertise in hip fracture care on the care of other fragility fractures is noteworthy and now relevant globally. Although many national audits have now published encouraging reports of progress, the details of context and process determinants of the initiation and development of effective hip fracture audit have received relatively little attention. To address this, an extended discussion section - based on the author's experience of participation in several substantial audits, variously supporting and observing many others, and from his numerous discussions with audit colleagues over the years - may be of value in offering practical advice on some obvious and less obvious practical issues that arise in the setting up of large-scale hip fracture audits in a variety of healthcare contexts.

The association between the day of the week of milestones in the care pathway of patients with hip fracture and 30-day mortality: findings from a prospective national registry - The National Hip Fracture Database of England and Wales

BACKGROUND

Recent publications indicate increased mortality in patients admitted to hospital at the weekend, but these findings may be subject to inadequate adjustment for case-mix and the complexities of resource provision. Hip fractures generally occur in a frail comorbid population with a consistent diagnosis precipitating admission as an emergency. We therefore aimed to examine the association between the day of the week of milestones in the care pathway and 30-day mortality in this population.

METHODS

Using data from a prospective national database of hip fractures, we investigated the association between day of the week of admission, surgery, inpatient stay, and discharge (care pathway milestones) and 30-day mortality using generalised linear models. Data was collected between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2014, on 241,446 patients. An incremental case-mix adjustment strategy was performed using patient characteristics, non-surgical interventions, surgical interventions and discharge characteristics.

RESULTS

The day of admission was not associated with 30-day mortality. Sunday surgery (OR, 1.094; 95% CI, 1.043-1.148; P < 0.0001) and a delay to surgery of more than 24-hours (OR, 1.094; 95% CI, 1.059, 1.130; P < 0.0001) were both associated with a 9.4% increase in 30-day mortality. Discharge from the hospital on a Sunday (OR, 1.515; 95% CI, 1.224, 1.844; P < 0.0001) or out-of-hours discharge (OR, 1.174; 95% CI, 1.081, 1.276; P < 0.0001) were associated with a 51.5% and 17.4% increase in 30-day mortality, respectively. Mortality during the inpatient stay was 5.6% lower (IRR, 0.944; 95% CI, 0.909, 0.980; P = 0.003) at the weekend compared to weekdays.

CONCLUSIONS

There is limited evidence of a generalised weekend effect in patients admitted to hospital for hip fracture. Optimising resource utilisation is an essential element of planning and delivering healthcare services. Interventions that lead to surgery within 24-hours of admission are justified. Factors such as Sunday operations, discharge and out-of-hours discharge require further investigation.

Fall prevention intervention technologies: A conceptual framework and survey of the state of the art

In recent years, an ever increasing range of technology-based applications have been developed with the goal of assisting in the delivery of more effective and efficient fall prevention interventions. Whilst there have been a number of studies that have surveyed technologies for a particular sub-domain of fall prevention, there is no existing research which surveys the full spectrum of falls prevention interventions and characterises the range of technologies that have augmented this landscape. This study presents a conceptual framework and survey of the state of the art of technology-based fall prevention systems which is derived from a systematic template analysis of studies presented in contemporary research literature. The framework proposes four broad categories of fall prevention intervention system: Pre-fall prevention; Post-fall prevention; Fall injury prevention; Cross-fall prevention. Other categories include, Application type, Technology deployment platform, Information sources, Deployment environment, User interface type, and Collaborative function. After presenting the conceptual framework, a detailed survey of the state of the art is presented as a function of the proposed framework. A number of research challenges emerge as a result of surveying the research literature, which include a need for: new systems that focus on overcoming extrinsic falls risk factors; systems that support the environmental risk assessment process; systems that enable patients and practitioners to develop more collaborative relationships and engage in shared decision making during falls risk assessment and prevention activities. In response to these challenges, recommendations and future research directions are proposed to overcome each respective challenge.

The impact of a national clinician-led audit initiative on care and mortality after hip fracture in England: an external evaluation using time trends in non-audit data

BACKGROUND

Hip fracture is the most common serious injury of older people. The UK National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) was launched in 2007 as a national collaborative, clinician-led audit initiative to improve the quality of hip fracture care, but has not yet been externally evaluated.

METHODS

We used routinely collected data on 471,590 older people (aged 60 years and older) admitted with a hip fracture to National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England between 2003 and 2011. The main variables of interest were the use of early surgery (on day of admission, or day after) and mortality at 30 days from admission. We compared time trends in the periods 2003-2007 and 2007-2011 (before and after the launch of the NHFD), using Poisson regression models to adjust for demographic changes.

FINDINGS

The number of hospitals participating in the NHFD increased from 11 in 2007 to 175 in 2011. From 2007 to 2011, the rate of early surgery increased from 54.5% to 71.3%, whereas the rate had remained stable over the period 2003-2007. Thirty-day mortality fell from 10.9% to 8.5%, compared with a small reduction from 11.5% to 10.9% previously. The annual relative reduction in adjusted 30-day mortality was 1.8% per year in the period 2003-2007, compared with 7.6% per year over 2007-2011 (P<0.001 for the difference).

INTERPRETATION

The launch of a national clinician-led audit initiative was associated with substantial improvements in care and survival of older people with hip fracture in England.

Improving Osteoporosis Management in Primary Care: An Audit of the Impact of a Community Based Fracture Liaison Nurse

Background

Osteoporosis and associated fragility fractures are a major health problem; they are more common in women over 50 years old. Fracture liaison nurses have been widely used in secondary care to promote the recognition of fragility fractures and to promote the use of bone-sparing medication to reduce the risk of recurrent facture.

Objective

Audit the impact of a primary care based fracture liaison nurse on the detection of fragility fractures in people with osteoporosis and their treatment with a bone-sparing medication.

Method

This audit took place in 12 GP practices using ‘before and after’ cross-sectional extractions of anonymised routine data. We report, for females 50–74 years and ≥75 years old, socio-economic deprivation index, the prevalence of osteoporosis, recording of fragility fractures, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), smoking, and body-mass index (BMI) and use of appropriate bone-sparing medication. We used Altman’s test of independent proportions to compare before and after data.

Results

Recording of the diagnosis of osteoporosis increased from 1.5% to 1.7% (p = 0.059); the rate of DXA scans fell (1.8% to 1.4%; p = 0.002); recording of fractures and fragility fractures more than doubled (0.8% to 2.0%; p<0.001 and 0.5% to 1.5%; p<0.001, respectively) with approximate doubling of the recording of smoking, and BMI (p<0.001 level). Fragility fracture recording rose from 8.8% to 15% in females aged 50 to 74, and from 0.8% to 2.3% in people aged ≥75years old (p<0.001). There appeared to be inequity in the service, people who were least deprived were more likely to receive DXA scans and the more deprived to be prescribed bone sparing agents.

Conclusion

A fracture liaison nurse in primary care has been associated with a period of improved management. Liaison nurses based in different parts of the health system should be tested in a prospective trial.

Dependence for basic and instrumental activities of daily living after hip fractures

The objective of the study is to determine basic activities of daily living (Barthel Index) and instrumental activities of daily living (Lawton-Brody Index) before and after hip fracture. Follow-up study of patients (n=100) with hip fracture, operated at Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (Spain). Period January/2009-December/2011. Demographic characteristic of the patients, Charlson Index, Glomerular filtration rate, Barthel index, Lawton index, type of proximal femur fracture and surgical treatment delay were recorded. Multivariate regression was performed. Informed patient consent and ethical review approval were obtained. Before fracture were independent for activities of daily living (ADL) a 38.0%, at 90 days were 15.4%. The Barthel index score decreased from 75.2±28.2 to 56.5±31.8) (p<0.0001). If we consider the age, gender, comorbidity (Charlson index), renal function, fracture type and surgical delay objectify the only independent variable to predict dependency effect is age. If we also consider the Barthel score objectify the variable that significantly modifies that score at 90 days is the baseline value of the index. The prevalence of independence for instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) at the baseline moment is 11% and at 90 days is decreased to 2.2%. There is a decrease in the independence effect in all activities. The variable predictor of independence for all activities after taking into consideration age, sex, comorbidity, fracture type, surgical delay and renal function is the baseline score of the Barthel and Lawton index.

Falls prevention advice and visual feedback to those at risk of falling: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial

Background

Studies have shown that functional strength and balance exercises can reduce the risk of falling in older people if they are done on a regular basis. However, the repetitive nature of these exercises; combined with the inherent lack of feedback of progress may discourage seniors from exercising in the home, thereby rendering such an intervention ineffective. This study hypothesizes that the use of visual feedback and multimodal games will be more effective in encouraging adherence to home rehabilitation than standard care; thereby promoting independence and improving the quality of life in older adults at risk of falling.

Methods

A pllel-group pilot randomized controlled trial with 3 groups of participants will be conducted in the home for 12 weeks. Participants will include older adults who have been identified as at risk of falling (n = 48), over the age of 65, living in the community, and suitable for a home exercise intervention. The primary outcome is adherence to exercise. Secondary outcomes include: variability in stride length, stride time and double support time (DST); walking speed; Timed up and go test (TUG); Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I); CONFbal scale; Romberg’s test; and quality of life measures (SF-12 and EuroQol EQ-5D). Qualitative assessments on personal experiences with rehabilitation tools will be done before and after the trial.

Discussion

This study will investigate the use of visual feedback and engaging multimodal activities to address the problem of non-compliance to home exercises for falls rehabilitation. One of the unique qualities of this study is the adaptation of special participatory design methods through which the end users (fallers) will be involved in the design of the proposed rehabilitation tools at various stages of the design process.

Trial registration

ISRCTN79967470

Partnership for fragility bone fracture care provision and prevention program (P4Bones): study protocol for a secondary fracture prevention pragmatic controlled trial

Background

Fractures associated with bone fragility in older adults signal the potential for secondary fracture. Fragility fractures often precipitate further decline in health and loss of mobility, with high associated costs for patients, families, society and the healthcare system. Promptly initiating a coordinated, comprehensive pharmacological bone health and falls prevention program post-fracture may improve osteoporosis treatment compliance; and reduce rates of falls and secondary fractures, and associated morbidity, mortality and costs.

Methods/design

This pragmatic, controlled trial at 11 hospital sites in eight regions in Quebec, Canada, will recruit community-dwelling patients over age 50 who have sustained a fragility fracture to an intervention coordinated program or to standard care, according to the site. Site study coordinators will identify and recruit 1,596 participants for each study arm. Coordinators at intervention sites will facilitate continuity of care for bone health, and arrange fall prevention programs including physical exercise. The intervention teams include medical bone specialists, primary care physicians, pharmacists, nurses, rehabilitation clinicians, and community program organizers.

The primary outcome of this study is the incidence of secondary fragility fractures within an 18-month follow-up period. Secondary outcomes include initiation and compliance with bone health medication; time to first fall and number of clinically significant falls; fall-related hospitalization and mortality; physical activity; quality of life; fragility fracture-related costs; admission to a long term care facility; participants’ perceptions of care integration, expectations and satisfaction with the program; and participants’ compliance with the fall prevention program. Finally, professionals at intervention sites will participate in focus groups to identify barriers and facilitating factors for the integrated fragility fracture prevention program.

This integrated program will facilitate knowledge translation and dissemination via the following: involvement of various collaborators during the development and set-up of the integrated program; distribution of pamphlets about osteoporosis and fall prevention strategies to primary care physicians in the intervention group and patients in the control group; participation in evaluation activities; and eventual dissemination of study results.

Study/trial registration

Clinical Trial.Gov NCT01745068

Study ID number

CIHR grant # 267395