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Amount of Social Contact and Hip Fracture Mortality
Author(s) -
Mortimore Edward,
Haselow Dirk,
Dolan Melissa,
Hawkes William G.,
Langenberg Patricia,
Zimmerman Sheryl,
Magaziner Jay
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01706.x
Subject(s) - medicine , hazard ratio , hip fracture , confidence interval , prospective cohort study , cohort study , physical therapy , gerontology , demography , osteoporosis , sociology
OBJECTIVES: To study the association between amount of social contact and mortality after hip fracture in elderly participants. DESIGN: Prospective cohort. SETTING: Community residents of Baltimore, Maryland. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred seventy‐four elderly participants. MEASUREMENTS: Amount of telephone and direct personal contact between participants and their relatives and friends and mortality up to 2 years after fracture. RESULTS: No social contact with friends during the 2 weeks before the fracture was associated with a five times greater risk of death over 2 years than daily contact with friends during the 2 weeks before the fracture (hazard ratio (HR)=5.04, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.75–9.23). Participants with less than daily contact were also at greater risk of dying, although the CI spanned 1 (HR=1.76, 95% CI=0.99–3.13). Participants who had no contact with family members prefracture were more than twice as likely to die as those who communicated daily during the 2 weeks before fracture (HR=2.26, 95% CI=1.36–3.77). Participants who had less than daily contact were also more than twice as likely to die (HR=2.55, 95% CI=1.65–3.94). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that lower social contact before hip fracture is associated with poorer survival after 2 years.