30 January 2012
Chen YY,
Cheng PY,
Wu SL,
Lai CH
Background: Patients
with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are subject to posture instability and
falling. However, PD was not included as one of the risk factors in
commonly used fracture risk calculation tools and the fracture rate in
patients with PD was rarely reported. The aim of this study was to
evaluate the risk of hip fracture in patients with PD.
Methods: Data
were collected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of
Taiwan. The study group included 394 patients with PD diagnosed in
1999–2000. The comparison cohort was comprised of 3940 age- and
sex-matched patients from the same enrollment period. All patients were
tracked from their index visits for eight years.
Results: Hip
fracture developed in 10.4% of patients with PD and 4.1% of patients in
the comparison cohort during the follow-up period. Log-rank test
analysis showed a significantly higher rate of hip fracture in PD. The
Cox proportional regression model showed an adjusted hazard ratio of
2.71 (95% confidence interval = 1.92–3.83, P < 0.001) for patients with PD.
Conclusion: The
hip fracture rate was as high as 10.4% in PD patients during 8 years
follow-up period. While assessing the risk of hip fracture, PD should be
taken into consideration. For those very high risk patients (elderly
women with PD, osteoporosis, diabetes and diabetic neuropathy), many
efforts should be made to prevent fracture.
