The month following a fracture is critical for the elderly

Despite a very high mortality rate during this period, only one in five patients would receive counseling before leaving the hospital. Before being discharged from hospital, people who have had a heart attack meet with a healthcare professional who offers advice to help them make a good recovery and avoid a recurrence. The same should be done for the elderly who have suffered a bone fracture, suggest Canadian researchers in the light of a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Plus , which shows that the mortality rate among these patients is very high in the month following the fracture. The researchers arrived at this finding after studying the survival rate of 98,474 patients, aged between 66 and 105, in the five years following a bone fracture. "These were fractures related to bone fragility caused by osteoporosis," explains study leader Jacques Brown , Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and researcher at the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec - Université Laval. For comparison purposes, the researchers compiled data on the survival rate of an identical number of people with a similar profile, but who had not suffered a fracture. The first finding to emerge from their analyses is that, no matter what part of the body is affected, a bone fracture mortgages patient survival.