The Economic Cost of Hip Fractures in Community‐Dwelling Older Adults: A Prospective Study

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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the incremental cost in the year after hip fracture.DESIGN: Prospective cohort studySETTING: Baltimore, MarylandPARTICIPANTS: 759 community dwelling older patients who sustained a hip fracture and participated in the Baltimore Hip Fracture Study.MEASUREMENTS: Resource use for direct medical care, formal nonmedical care, and informal care in the 6 months before and the year after fracture was estimated from interviews with patients or proxy respondents. Costs in 1993 dollars were estimated by multiplying resources times national unit cost estimates.RESULTS:: The annualized costs in the year before the fracture ranged between $18,523 and $20,928. The costs in the year after the fracture equaled $37,250. The incremental costs in the year after the fracture, compared with the costs in the year before the fracture, ranged between $16,322 and $18,727. The largest cost differences were attributable to hospitalizations, nursing home stays, and rehabilitation services.CONCLUSIONS: Because we compared the costs after a fracture with costs before, our estimates of the incremental cost of a hip fracture are lower than others in the literature. These results, obtained from interviews with patients enrolled in a cohort study, or their proxies, provide the best data available to date on the economic cost of hip fractures among community‐dwelling older persons.