Assessment of outcome after hip fracture: development of a universal assessment system for hip fractures

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to refine current evaluation systems used to assess outcome after a hip fracture and to devise a simple and practical system to assess all hip fracture patients. METHODS Three continuous scales were defined for pain, mobility and functional independence. These were all found to have an acceptable degree of inter-observer agreement. The pre-fracture mobility and independence scores were related to the one-year mortality for a consecutive series of 381 patients. RESULTS Scores for mobility and functional independence were highly predictive of mortality (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS It is recommended that the outcome after hip fracture should be standardised to these principle outcomes of pain, regain of mobility and independence and mortality. These scores can be use to assess progress and identify those who may require additional assessment or intervention.