Assessment of older acute hip fracture patients: From the view of geriatricians

Objectives: Hip fractures are important causes of disability and mortality in older adults. The orthogeriatric assessment proved beneficial while it is limited in many developing countries. Herein, we aimed to report the results derived from the first two orthogeriatric assessment centers in Turkey. Material and Methods: 103 older adults underwent geriatric assessment in the study period (November 2018-September 2020). We noted demographics, geriatric syndromes identified by a comprehensive geriatric assessment, laboratory parameters on admission, and mortality in the hospital. Descriptive statistics were generated for all study variables. Numerical variables were given as mean±standard deviation, and relative frequencies were given for categorical (qualitative) variables. Also, continuous data were given as a median, interquartile range (IQR) as appropriate. Results: Mean age was 81.2±7.8 (range: 63-95), and 65% were female. While 58.3% of the patients were widowed, 4.9% were single. 22.3% were living alone. 35% were uneducated. 8.7% were smokers, 3.9% had reported using alcohol regularly. The mean time to preoperative evaluation of hip fracture patients by the geriatrician was 3.99±3.80 [median=3; interquartile range (IQR)=3] days. 79.7% were either frail or prefrail (58.3%, frail; 21.4%, prefrail) before admission to the hospital. Before the hospitalization, 50.5% were undernourished [10.7%, malnutrition (MN); 39.8%, malnutrition risk (MNR)]. This rate became 73.8% during the early days of hospitalization (median=3 days, IQR=3) (28.2%, MN; 45.6%, MNR, respectively). 54.4% of the patients had a previous complaint of urinary incontinence before admission to the hospital; the most common (46.4%) incontinence type was urge incontinence. 44.7% of the patients reported having difficulty in falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep. 23.3% of the patients had positive screening test (Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-2) for depression. Delirium was screened positive in 28.2% of the patients on admission. 25.2% had ...