Abstract
BackgroundHip fractures among older adults are a major public health problem in many countries. Hip fractures are associated with expensive health care treatments, and serious adverse effects on patients’ health and quality-of-life. In this paper, we estimate the effect of a community-based hip fracture prevention program that was initiated in 16 Norwegian municipalities in 2007. Specifically, the participating municipalities implemented one or more of the following interventions: exercise programs for older adults, information and education campaigns to communicate how to effectively reduce falls to care workers and older adults, and preventive home safety assessment and modification help services.MethodsWe used a difference-in-difference design, and identified control municipalities by matching on pre-intervention trends in the outcome. The outcome measure was the incidence of hip-fractures among older adults (≥65 years).ResultsWe found no statistically significant effects of the implemented program on the incidence of hip fractures, on average, in older subgroups (≥80 years) or in municipality-specific analyses.ConclusionsIt is unclear whether the interventions managed to achieve a change in hip fracture rates at the population level.
Highlights
Hip fractures among older adults are a major public health problem in many countries
It is unclear whether the interventions managed to achieve a change in hip fracture rates at the population level
Among the primary care services are all social and community health services provided to persons with long-term care (LTC) needs
Summary
Hip fractures among older adults are a major public health problem in many countries. Hip fractures are associated with expensive health care treatments, and serious adverse effects on patients’ health and quality-oflife. We estimate the effect of a community-based hip fracture prevention program that was initiated in 16 Norwegian municipalities in 2007. The participating municipalities implemented one or more of the following interventions: exercise programs for older adults, information and education campaigns to communicate how to effectively reduce falls to care workers and older adults, and preventive home safety assessment and modification help services. The risk of experiencing a hip fracture after a fall is higher among older adults due to age-associated risk factors such as osteoporosis [8, 25]. Beyond individual-level health losses, hip fractures are associated with large economic losses to society due to excess hospital costs [25]. The burden of hip fractures is expected to increase in the future
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