Mortality and outcome in fragility hip fracture care during COVID-19 pandemic in Police General Hospital, Thailand

Objectives

The objective of this study is to assess outcomes and patient's mortality of Police General Hospital's fracture liaison service (PGH's FLS) during Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak comparing to the former period.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study was performed in patients aged 50 or older who were admitted with fragility hip fracture in Police General Hospital, Bangkok, between January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019 (before pandemic) comparing to January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 (pandemic) using the electronic database. The outcomes were mortality and other outcomes in one-year follow up.

Results

A total of 139 fragility hip fractures were recorded in 2018–2019 (before pandemic) compared with 125 in 2020–2021 (pandemic). The 30-day mortality in hip fracture numerically increased from 0% to 2.4% during the pandemic. One-year mortality was significantly escalated from 2 cases (1.4%) to 5 cases (4%) (P = 0.033). However, the cause of mortality was not related with COVID-19 infection. We also found a significantly shorter time to surgery but longer wait time for bone mineral density (BMD) testing and initiation of osteoporosis medication in pandemic period.

Conclusions

The results of this study in COVID-19 pandemic period, 1-year mortality rate was significantly higher but they were not related with COVID-19 infection. We also found longer time to initial BMD testing and anti-osteoporotic medication and more loss of follow up, causing lower anti-osteoporotic medication taking. In contrast, the time to surgery became shorter during the pandemic.