Hip Fracture Intervention Trial (HIPFIT)

Funded Activity Summary

Hip fracture secondary to falling in the elderly represents a large and rising health care problem in Australia. At least 12,000 such hip fractures occur in the elderly in Australia each year and this number is expected to increase substantially over the next several decades. Long term disability, nursing home placement, reduced quality of life, and excess mortality are known sequelae of hip fracture despite successful surgical repair. Factors have been previous identified in epidemiological research which predict poor recovery of function and the most prominent of these are advanced age, pre-exiting mental or functional impairment, malnutrition, depression, poor social support networks, and poor gait, balance and muscle function. Current treatment paradigms for hip fracture do not uniformly screen for or appropriately address potentially reversible factors such as poor nutrition, neuromuscular dysfunction, depression, strength of social supports, or risk factors for recurrent injurious falls. It is unlikely that a unidimensional treatment will ever optimize long term functional independence in such a multifactorial syndrome. Therefore, we propose to apply a multifaceted targeted experimental treatment package (HIPFIT) to elderly patients admitted to hospital for repair of a fractured hip secondary to a fall. HIPFIT would begin in hospital and continue throughout the 12 months of follow up, using individualized treatment strategies based on periodic reassessments in these vital domains over time. The goal of the study is to reduce the number of patients requiring nursing home care at the end of 12 months, as well as to improve independence in a range of activities of daily living among experimental subjects. This would have significance not only in terms of large economic savings for the health care system but reduced personal suffering and dependency on the part of the affected individuals.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2002

End Date: 01-01-2006

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $819,180.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Rehabilitation And Therapy: Occupational And Physical

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

body composition | disability | falls | hip fracture | nutritional status | osteoporosis | psychosocial function

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