Quality of life related to fear of falling and hip fracture in older women: a time trade off study Commentary: Older people's perspectives on life after hip fractures

Abstract

# Quality of life related to fear of falling and hip fracture in older women: a time trade off study {#article-title-2} Hip fractures are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and almost all occur after a fall.1 In the next 50 years the number of hip fractures will probably increase greatly.1-3 About 20% of people who fracture their hips are dead within a year,4-6 and many of those who recover from hip fracture require additional assistance in daily living. 4 7 Population data tend to obscure the personal impact of falls and hip fracture. Objective measures of function, such as activities of daily living8 and subjective utility based measures of health related quality of life,9 can express the personal dimension. Hip fracture adversely affects health related quality of life, with greater physical recovery reflected in better quality of life.10 Thus, health related quality of life is an important outcome for studies attempting to reduce the number of falls or their consequences.11 As part of an ongoing randomised trial (the community hip protector trial) that is examining the effectiveness of hip protectors in older women living in the community we sought to estimate the utility (preference for health) associated with falls that cause a fear of falling or hip fracture in older women. Study participants —The community hip protector study is a randomised controlled trial involving women aged 75 years and older who are at high risk of hip fracture and who live in their own homes. Older women living in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, who had contact with an aged care health service and met inclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study. These criteria were age greater than 74 years; two or more falls, or one fall resulting in hospital treatment, in the past year; at least one hip without previous surgery; likely to continue to live in the … Correspondence to: S Ameratunga