Summary  

Nursing home residents with a history of hip fractures or prior osteoporotic fractures were found to have an increased risk of another osteoporotic fracture over the ensuing two years when compared to nursing home residents with no fracture history.

Introduction  

Because of the high prevalence of osteoporosis and fall risk factors in nursing home residents, it is possible that the importance of previous fracture as a marker for subsequent fracture risk may be diminished. We tested whether a history of prior osteoporotic fractures would identify residents at increased risk of additional fractures after nursing home admission.

Methods  

We identified all Medicare enrollees aged 50 and older who were in a nursing home in North Carolina in 2000 (n = 30,655). We examined Medicare hospitalization claims to determine which enrollees had been hospitalized in the preceding 4 years for a hip fracture (n = 7,257) or other fracture (n = 663). We followed participants from nursing home entry until the end of 2002 using Medicare hospital claims to determine which participants were hospitalized with a subsequent fracture (n = 3,381).

Results  

Among residents with no recent fracture history, 6.8% had a hospital claim for a subsequent fracture, while 15.1% of those with a prior non-hip fracture and 23.9% of participants with a prior hip fracture sustained subsequent fractures. Multivariate proportional hazards models of time to fracture indicated that persons with prior hip fractures are at three times higher risk (HR = 2.99, 95% CI: 2.78, 3.21) and those hospitalized with other non-hip fractures are at 1.8 times higher risk of subsequent fractures (HR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.50, 2.25).

Conclusion  

Nursing home residents hospitalized with a prior osteoporotic fracture are at increased risk of a fracture.