Diabetes and Risk of Post-Fragility Hip Fracture Outcomes in Elderly Patients

Objective. To explore the effect of diabetes on short-term (30 days after fracture) and 1-year outcomes for fragility hip fracture patients. Methods. We conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 161 diabetic hip fracture patients (older than 60 years) and 483 nondiabetic hip fracture patients. Patients were followed up on day 30 and 1 year after fracture. The short-term outcome was complications that occurred within 30 days after hip fracture and length of stay. The 1-year outcomes were postfracture functional outcomes and reduced activity level and mortality rate within 1 year after fracture. The clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients were analyzed. Results. Compared with nondiabetic patients, diabetic patients had a longer length of awaiting surgery (6.0 vs. 5.0 days, P=0.031) and a longer length of total hospital stay (17 vs. 15 days, P<0.001). Furthermore, compared with nondiabetic patients, diabetic patients have higher costs (P=0.011), in addition to being more prone to developing urinary tract infections (6.2% vs. 1.7%, P=0.002) and deep vein thrombosis (4.3% vs. 1.4%, P=0.029) complications. However, at one-year follow-up, no differences in recovery of function and mortality were observed between the two groups. Conclusions. Diabetic patients are at an increased risk of urinary tract infections and deep vein thrombosis complications but have similar recovery of function and 1-year mortality compared to nondiabetic patients.