Amount of social contact and hip fracture mortality.
OBJECTIVE
To study the association between amount of social contact and mortality after hip fracture in elderly participants.


METHODS
Prospective cohort.


METHODS
Community residents of Baltimore, Maryland.


METHODS
Six hundred seventy-four elderly participants.


METHODS
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).


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that lower social contact before hip fracture is associated with poorer survival after 2 years.
Mortimore
Edward
E
Division of Nursing Homes, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 7500 Security Blvd., Room S3-12-11, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850, USA. Edward.Mortimore@cms.hhs.gov
Haselow
Dirk
D
Dolan
Melissa
M
Hawkes
William G
WG
Langenberg
Patricia
P
Zimmerman
Sheryl
S
Magaziner
Jay
J
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015142:Baltimore / Q000453:epidemiology; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D015996:Survival Rate