Smoking and hip fracture; a study of 3617 cases.

Abstract

We analysed the characteristics and outcome for 467 hip fracture patients, who reported that they were currently smoking at the time of admission, against 3150 non-smoking hip fracture patients. Those patients who smoked were younger (72 years versus 81 years mean age), more likely to be male (35.3% versus 19.5%), more mobile and less likely to be living in institutional care (7.5% versus 25.0%). Preoperative outcomes and complication rates were similar, despite the smokers' relative youth. Mortality at 30 days was similar for the two groups (6.2% versus 7.6%), but lower for the smokers at one year (22.7% versus 27.6%). However, with adjustment for the younger age and sex of these patients, this difference in mortality was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that smoking results in hip fracture occurring at a younger age. Despite this, the outcome for smokers was similar to that for the average hip fracture patient.