Is the higher mortality among men with hip fracture explained by sex-related differences in quality of in-hospital care? A population-based cohort study.

Background: mortality after hip fracture is two-fold higher in men compared with women. It is unknown whether sex-related differences in the quality of in-hospital care contribute to the higher mortality among men.

Objective: to examine sex-related differences in quality of in-hospital care, 30-day mortality, length of hospital stay and readmission among patients with hip fracture.

Design: population-based cohort study.

Measures: using prospectively collected data from the Danish Multidisciplinary Hip Fracture Registry, we identified 25,354 patients ≥65 years (29% were men). Outcome measures included quality of in-hospital care as reflected by seven process performance measures, 30-day mortality, length of stay (LOS) and readmission within 30 days after discharge. Data were analysed using multivariable regression techniques.

Results: in general, there were no substantial sex-related differences in quality of in-hospital care. The relative risk for receiving the individual process performance measure ranged from 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85-0.97) to 0.97 (95% CI 0.94-0.99) for men compared with women. The 30-day mortality was 15.9% for men and 9.3% for women corresponding to an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.30 (95% CI 2.09-2.54). The overall readmission risk within 30 days after discharge was 21.6% for men and 16.4% for women (adjusted OR of 1.38 (95% CI 1.29-1.47)). No difference in LOS was observed between men and women.

Conclusions: sex differences in the quality of in-hospital care appeared not to explain the higher mortality and risk of readmission among men hospitalised with hip fracture.