Simple test for fragility could prevent one in four hip fractures

♦ Thousands of hip fractures could be prevented with a nationwide screening programme to test for fragility in older people.

A trial, published in The Lancet, showed that more than one in four of the injuries could be prevented through proactive measures.

About 79,000 people suffer hip fractures in the UK each year. Less than a third make a full recovery and around 20 per cent die within a year.

The new study showed that a simple questionnaire combined with bone mineral density measurements for women aged 70 to 85 enabled doctors to prevent 28 per cent of hip fractures over the following five years.

The trial comprised 12,483 women from 100 GP practices across seven regions of England. Those people found to be at higher risk were started on osteoporosis medications within six months of screening. By 2025, hip fractures are predicted to cost the UK economy £5.5 billion a year and the new approach is likely to be cost-effective.

Prof Lee Shepstone, from the University of East Anglia, said this was the first trial to show that a community screening approach was effective.

“Given that the number of costly and debilitating hip fractures are expected to increase with an ageing population, the results of this study potentially have important public health implications,” he said.