Is It “Fractured” or “Broken”? A Patient Survey Study to Assess Injury Comprehension after Orthopedic Trauma

the bone is “fractured” or “broken”. While orthopaedic surgeons consider these terms synonymous, patients appear tocomprehend the terms as having different meanings. Given the commonality of this frequently posed question, it may beimportant for providers to assess patients’ level of understanding in order to provide optimal care. The purpose of thisstudy is to evaluate patients’ comprehension and understanding regarding the use of the terms fractured and broken.Methods: A survey was administered as a patient-quality measure to patients, family members and/or other non-patientspresenting to an orthopaedic outpatient clinic at an academic teaching hospital.Results: 200 responders met inclusion criteria. Only 45% of responders understood the terms fractured and brokento be synonymous. Age, gender, nor ethnicity correlated with understanding of terminology. Responders described a“fractured” bone using synonyms of less severe characteristics for 55.7% of their answers and chose more severecharacteristics 44.3% of the time, whereas responders chose synonyms to describe a "broken” bone with more severecharacteristics as an answer in 62.1% of cases and chose less severe characteristics 37.9% of the time. The differencefor each group was statistically significant (P=0.0458 and P ≤0.00001, respectively).There was no correlation betweenlevel of education nor having a personal orthopaedic history of a previous fracture with understanding the termsfracture and broken as synonymous. Having an occupation in the medical field (i.e. physician or physical/occupationaltherapist) significantly improved understanding of terminology.Conclusion: The majority of people, regardless of the age, gender, race, education or history of previous fracture, maynot understand that fractured and broken are synonymous terms. Providers need to be cognizant of the terminology theyuse when describing a patient’s injury in order to optimize patient understanding and care.