Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Objective: Osteoprosis is the most frequent underlying cause of femoral neck fractures in the eldery. These fractures weigh heavily on health care budgets. An accurate and exhaustive evaluation of these costs would be a major contribution to health economic studies evaluating the efficiency of screening and preventive strategies. However, in Iran, very little data on the financial burden of hip fractures is available and no updated estimate has been made. The goal of this paper is to estimate the direct medical expenditures associated with hip fractures for each patient.

Method: This cross-sectional study has been based on concerning 200 patients with hip fractures who referred to orthopedic clinic of Sina Hospital during the years of 1377-1382. For each patient, we registered an exhaustive and detailed list of health care services as well as inpatient costs, the kind of traumas and fractures, age, sex, marital status, the kind of prostheses and osteosynthesis materials, patient’s past medical history, the history of taking any medication and smoking, bone fracture history in the family, days of hospitalisation and their health state after the end of hospitalisation.

Results: Women represented 51% and men 49% of the patients. The distribution of fracture types in our study was 72% femoral neck and 28% trochanteric. The most common osteosynthesis material used in operations was dynamic hip screw(41.5%). 2% of the patients died before the end of hospitalisation. The average length of hospitalisation for each patient was 16 days with a mean age of 60 years.(The mean age for the patients over 50 was calculated to be 71). The mean inpatient cost for each patient with a hip fracture was 4933320 Rials($588).

Conclusion: With a mean cost of 4933320 Rials($588) for each patient with a hip fracture — total cost of 226932720000 Rials in a year — proximal femoral neck fracture should be considered a major health economic problem, and appropriate measures should be clearly defined to avoid this health problem.