TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Fracture prevention service to bridge the osteoporosis care gap JO - Clinical interventions in aging A1 - Ruggiero, Carmelinda A1 - Zampi, Elena A1 - Rinonapoli, Giuseppe A1 - Baroni, Marta A1 - Serra, Rocco A1 - Zengarini, Elisa A1 - Baglioni, Gregorio A1 - Duranti, Giuliana A1 - Ercolani, Sara A1 - Conti, Francesco A1 - Caraffa, Auro A1 - Mecocci, Patrizia A1 - Brandi, Maria Luisa SP - 1035 EP - 1042 VL - 10 IS - N2 - 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.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1176-9092 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S76695 ID - ref1 ER -