Clinical Interventions in Aging (Jun 2015)

Fracture prevention service to bridge the osteoporosis care gap

  • Ruggiero C,
  • Zampi E,
  • Rinonapoli G,
  • Baroni M,
  • Serra R,
  • Zengarini E,
  • Baglioni G,
  • Duranti G,
  • Ercolani S,
  • Conti F,
  • Caraffa A,
  • Mecocci P,
  • Brandi ML

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 10
pp. 1035 – 1042

Abstract

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Carmelinda Ruggiero,1 Elena Zampi,1 Giuseppe Rinonapoli,2 Marta Baroni,1 Rocco Serra,1 Elisa Zengarini,1 Gregorio Baglioni,3 Giuliana Duranti,3 Sara Ercolani,1 Francesco Conti,4 Auro Caraffa,2 Patrizia Mecocci,1 Maria Luisa Brandi5 1Geriatric Unit, University of Perugia, Hospital S Maria della Misericordia, 2Orthopedic and Traumatologic Unit, University of Perugia, Hospital S Maria della Misericordia, 3Primary Care Physicians, SIMG Umbria, Perugia, 4Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, AO Sant’Andrea Hospital, Rome, 5Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy Background: A care gap exists between the health care needs of older persons with fragility fractures and the therapeutic answers they receive. The Fracture Prevention Service (FPS), a tailored in-hospital model of care, may effectively bridge the osteoporosis care gap for hip-fractured older persons. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the FPS in targeting persons at high risk of future fracture and to improve their adherence to treatment.Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted in a teaching hospital with traumatology and geriatric units, and had a pre-intervention and post-intervention phase. The records of 172 participants were evaluated in the pre-intervention phase, while data from 210 participants were gathered in the post-intervention phase. All participants underwent telephone follow-up at 12 months after hospital discharge. The participants were patients aged ≥65 years admitted to the orthopedic acute ward who underwent surgical repair of a proximal femoral fracture. A multidisciplinary integrated model of care was established. Dedicated pathways were implemented in clinical practice to optimize the identification of high-risk persons, improve their evaluation through bone mineral density testing and blood examinations, and initiate an appropriate treatment for secondary prevention of falls and fragility fractures.Results: Compared with the pre-intervention phase, more hip-fractured persons received bone mineral density testing (47.62% versus 14.53%, P<0.0001), specific pharmacological treatments (48.51% versus 17.16%, P<0.0001), and an appointment for evaluation at a fall and fracture clinic (52.48% versus 2.37%, P<0.0001) in the post-intervention phase. Independent of some confounders, implementation of the FPS was positively associated with recommendations for secondary fracture prevention at discharge (P<0.0001) and with 1-year adherence to pharmacological treatment (P<0.0001).Conclusion: The FPS is an effective multidisciplinary integrated model of care to optimize identification of older persons at highest risk for fragility fracture, to improve their clinical management, and to increase adherence to prescriptions. Keywords: osteoporosis, secondary prevention, hip fracture, fracture liaison service, model of care

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