Poor Activities of Daily Living Function Reflect Poor Quality of Life after Hip Fracture Surgery for Geriatric Patients

Abstract

Introduction: With the aging of the population, hip fractures have become a major public health issue in the elderly. It is important to examine the loss of activities of daily living (ADL) and the quality of life (QoL) among the elderly after repair of hip fracture. The correlation between ADL and QoL over time after hip fracture surgery was also our major concern. Methods: A prospective study enrolling 117 geriatric patients undergoing hip fracture surgery in a tertiary medical center was conducted between 2017 and 2018. All participants were evaluated with the EuroQol-5D for assessing QoL and the Barthel index for measuring ADL function at baseline, 3-and 6-month follow-ups after hip fracture surgery. Results: The mortality rate among geriatric patients after hip fracture surgery was 5.5% at 3 months and 9.1% at 6 months. In addition, both ADL function and QoL significantly deteriorated after 6 months of follow-up without improvement with time. After the 6-month follow-up, only 20% of geriatric patients undergoing repair for hip fracture were able to recover baseline ADL. The QoL at the 6-month follow-up was correlated with both cross-sectional and longitudinal ADL function after repair for hip fracture among geriatric patients. Conclusion: Functional impairment is common among geriatric patients after hip fracture surgery. Poor ADL could predict and reflect poor QoL after the 6-month follow-up. More emphasis should be put on preventing functional loss after hip fracture surgery in order for better QoL among geriatric patients undergoing hip fracture surgery.