Prospective Associations Between Fear of Falling, Anxiety, Depression, and Pain and Functional Outcomes Following Surgery for Intertrochanteric Hip Fracture

Objective Fear of falling, anxiety, depression, and pain levels are important risk factors for poor functional outcomes that may potentially be modifiable. We aimed to examine prospective associations between those factors following surgery for intertrochanteric hip fracture. Methods This study is a prospective observational cohort study of patients aged over 65 diagnosed with isolated intertrochanteric hip fracture. Three hundred and seventy patients who underwent intramedullary fixation surgery were screened; 188 cases were included in our final evaluation. Patients with any concomitant fracture, major psychiatric/neurocognitive and neurological disorders and those with any other major disease were excluded from the study. Age, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores on the day of surgery (baseline) were evaluated as predictors of poor/good outcome at 90 days after surgery, by Harris Hip Score (HHS) with a cut-off score of 70. Results HHS score was significantly predicted at baseline by the full model [χ 2 (7) = 18.18, P = .01]. However, only STAI-state scores were significantly added to the model [Exp (B) 95% CI: .92 (.86-.99)]. Conclusions In this prospective cohort study, we found that higher levels of anxiety state on the day of surgery predicts a poor outcome at 90 days following surgery. We did not find significant associations between other variables, including age, GDS, STAI-trait, FES-I, VAS, and CCI. This potentially modifiable psychological factor may inform surgeons and could be a potential mediator. Future prospective studies are needed to replicate these findings. Level of evidence Prognostic level I