Loading ...

Older adults who fracture their hip are more likely to experience dementia than their peers who never experienced the same break, according to preliminary research presented the at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society.

After analyzing both adjusted and unadjusted values, "those who had a hip fracture had a more than double likelihood of developing possible or probable dementia compared to the control group," said Priya Singh, a second-year medical student at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health in New York.

Singh and colleagues used survey data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) of Medicare beneficiaries aged > 65 years who lived in community or non–nursing home settings.

Participants were tracked through 2019 and included in the hip fracture group if they self-reported the injury during the previous year (n = 137). Singh and colleagues then looked at the data on changes from normal cognition to possible or probable dementia. The hip fracture group was composed of a higher proportion of people who had reported frailty and depression, were over age 75, had multiple comorbidities, and were women than those in the control group (n = 2435).

Researchers used the NHATS definition of possible dementia, which included participants who were < 1.5 standard deviations below the mean in either memory, orientation, or executive function. Probable dementia included people with any of the three criteria: A physician diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or dementia, a score of two or higher on the Ascertain Dementia 8-item Questionnaire, or < 1.5 standard deviations below the mean in two of the three NHATS domains. Researchers also adjusted for age, race, ethnicity, and Medicaid status, among others.

The analysis showed that sustaining a hip fracture increased the likelihood of transitioning from normal cognitive function to possible or probable dementia. Approximately 7.1% of participants in the hip fracture group had possible dementia compared with 1.4% in the control group. Probable dementia was found in 7.8% of participants in the hip fracture cohort and 4.4% of participants in the control group.

Researchers said that while the results were statistically significant, they cannot rule out cognitive decline not detected before a fracture was sustained.

The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.

Liz Seegert is a freelance journalist.