56 Examining Fall-Related HIP Fractures in Long-Term Residential Aged Care and the Community: Trends, Health Outcomes and Treatment Costs

Abstract

Abstract Background Hip fracture risk is higher for older adults living in residential aged care facilities (RACF) and their health outcomes worse compared to older adults living in the community. Pre-hip fracture residential status is not well recorded within hospital records, necessitating linkage of hospital and residential aged care data to better ascertain residential location pre-fracture. Aim To examine temporal trends, characteristics and health outcomes following a fall-related hip fracture hospitalisation of people living in RACFs to those living in the community. Method A retrospective analysis of fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations of people aged ≥65 years during 2008-2013 in New South Wales, Australia. Linked hospitalisation and RACF data were examined. Negative binomial regression examined the significance of hospitalisation temporal trends. Results There were 28,897 hip fracture hospitalisations and 32.5% were living in RACFs at time of fracture. The hospitalisation rate was 2,180 per 100,000 (95%CI: 2,097.0-2,263.7) for RACF residents and 390 per 100,000 (95%CI 384.8-395.8) for the community-living. Over 5 years, the hospitalisation rate for RACF residents declined by 2.9% annually (95%CI: -4.3 to -1.5). Hospital treatment cost for hip fractures was $958.5 million. Compared to older people living in the community, a higher proportion of RACF residents were aged ≥90 years (36.1% vs 17.2%), were female (75.3% vs 71.8%), had >1 Charlson comorbidity (37.6% vs 35.6%), and had dementia (58.2% vs 14.4%). RACF residents had fewer in-hospital rehabilitation episodes (18.7% vs 60.9%) and a higher proportion of unplanned readmissions (10.6% vs 9.1%) and in-hospital mortality (5.9% vs 3.3%) compared to older people living in the community. Conclusions RACF residents are a vulnerable cohort of older people who experience worse health outcomes and survival post-hip fracture than older people living in the community. Whether access to individualised hip fracture rehabilitation for RACF residents could improve health outcomes should be examined.