The Socio-Economic Impact Produced by Patients with Dementia and Hip Fractures

Abstract

Age is one of the most important parameters influencing the occurrence of hip fractures in patients over the age of 65 but also their mental state is a decisive factor. In the first three months, older adults have eight times higher risk of dying of a hip fracture if compared with people who have not suffered such type of injury. In the last 10 years, several studies showed considerable increase in the well-being of patients who have both pathologies but for the caregivers it proved to be a very hard task. The management of hospitalization costs of dementia and hip fracture patients cannot include only the period of hospitalization, but should also include the 1-year period of recovery. In UK, the annual incidence of hip fracture is 79,243, accident and emergency costs per hip fracture is 297 pounds and hospitalization costs per hip fracture is 13,765 pounds. Health and social care for hip bone fractures in one year amounts to 2 billion euros but specialists expect the number of hip fractures to increase reaching 104,000 cases by 2025.