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Hip fracture trials do not include enough patients with dementia
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Patients with dementia are often excluded from hip fracture clinical trials due to their inability to answer quality of life questionnaires; however this practice may potentially impact study results, according to Canadian researchers.
“When investigating hip fractures, choosing appropriate objective endpoints is essential to ensure results are also applicable to patients with dementia,” Jonah Hebert-Davies, MD, and colleagues stated in the abstract of their study.
In reviewing excluded patients in the Fixation Using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip Fractures (FAITH) and Hip Fracture Evaluation with Alternatives of Total Hip Arthroplasty versus Hemi-Arthroplasty (HEALTH) clinical trials, researchers found the FAITH study excluded 375 of 1,690 (22.2%) patients due to cognitive impairment, according to the abstract. The HEALTH study had similarly excluded 207 of 575 patients for dementia or cognitive impairment.
The researchers’ systematic review revealed that two studies evaluated patients with hip fractures with and without dementia, both of which identified significant increases in complications and mortality, according to the abstract.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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