Hip fractures among older people: do marital status and type of residence matter?

This study analysed the extent to which civil status and type of residence affect the risk of elderly people sustaining a hip fracture. The study population consisted of all residents, aged 65 years or older, living in Stockholm County in Sweden between the years 1993 and 1995 (about 250,000 in total). Cases of hip fractures in the County's outpatient register (1993-1995) were linked to national registers, enabling injured people to be attributed a marital status (during year of injury), and also a size of dwelling and form of residential entitlement (in 1990). Gender-specific injury rates for three age groups were computed, as were age-standardized odds ratios (ORs) by gender for each variable of interest. As expected, hip fractures were found to rise with age among both men and women, and the risk of women sustaining such injuries was higher than that of men for all age groups. The proportion of injured men and women was higher among the unmarried than the married, and the majority of the injured were in rented accommodation (in all three age groups). The age-standardized ORs showed that the risk of hip fracture was substantially affected by civil (marital) status, but form of residential entitlement and size of dwelling did not affect the risk to any remarkable extent. The study demonstrates that being unmarried increases the risk of hip fracture among older men and women. This suggests that elderly unpartnered people may have a different daily-life pattern and may be in poorer health, both of which may be associated with a diminished social network.