Background: Over 250,000 hip fractures occur in the United States annually. Three out of five hospitalizations attributable to injury among persons over 75 were for fractures. Greater than 50% were hip fractures. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the functional recovery following hip fracture in the sub acute setting utilizing performance based measures. Method: This is a prospective observational cohort. Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics were used for baseline characteristics. Repeated measures analysis using a Bonferroni correction were utilized to compare admission and discharge performance based measure scores. Results: Eighty residents were enrolled in the study, of which seven were withdrawn due to medical complications and 1 subject expired within one week of admission. Data were analyzed for 72 subjects. There were 59 females and 13 males ranging in age from 63-99. Mean age was 85.3. The patient profile was as follows: 53% lived alone, 63% were Medicare recipients, 50% used an assistive device prior to hip fracture, 46% sustained a femoral neck fracture, 57% underwent a bipolar hemiarthroplasty, 90% received epidural anesthesia, and 90% had a weight bearing status as weight bearing as tolerated. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that objective measures of physical performance utilizing the timted up and go test, Tinetti gait and balance test, and the six minute walk test has been described in a sub-acute setting. There was a significant improvement between admission and discharge performance based measure scores in those who underwent surgical repair of a hip fracture following a fall.
