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.