Bone Abstracts

Osteoporosis-related hip fractures represent a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity in industrialized countries; nonetheless, past studies in Austria lack mortality figures save during hospitalization (in-hospital mortality).

We therefore retrospectively retrieved pseudonymized invoice data from Austrian social insurance authorities covering roughly 98% of the entire population including 31 548 subjects over 51 years of age who sustained first hip fractures between July 2008 and December 2010, with follow-up until June 2011. Kaplan–Meier and Cox hazard regression analyses yielded mortalities adjusted for age and gender.

In our cohort, median age of 73.36% female subjects at hospital discharge after first fracture was 83.57 years (IQR: 10.39) and 78.43 years (IQR: 16.26) for men (P<0.0001) (total median age: 82.49 years, IQR 12.27). Total in-hospital mortality in the study interval amounted to 4.05% (women: 3.44%; men: 5.74%; P<0.0001). Amongst survivors of hospitalization after first fracture, total mortality rates within 30 days, half a year, and one year after discharge were 3.13% (95% CI: 2.93–3.33%), 11.94% (95% CI: 11.57–12.31%), and 17.68% (95% CI: 17.23–18.13%), respectively, with shorter survival for male compared with female patients (HR 1.25, 95% CI: 1.19–1.32; P<0.0001). In this group, total one-year mortality rose from 6.33% (95% CI: 4.21–8.46%) amongst patients aged 51–54 years to 40.88% (95% CI: 37.68–44.08%) in patients aged 95 years and above. Total one-year mortality after first fracture, the exact date of which was assessed from hip fracture-related hospital days (median: 16 days, IQR: 17; median per fracture: 15 days, IQR: 9), amounted to 20.18% (95% CI: 19.71–20.65%), male to female HR 1.3 (95% CI 1.24–1.37).

Collectively, next to providing an up-to-date account of osteoporosis-related hip fracture mortality in a cohort comprising the vast majority of first cases aged over 51 treated in Austrian hospitals during a 2.5-year period, mortality rates presented herein are within the lowest compared with recent studies from other countries.