The objectives of this cohort study were to compare the quality of life between pre-operative and post-operative periods in older patients who had hip fractures and to study the factors associated with post-operative quality of life. The purposive sampling was used to recruit 36 older, male and female, patients aged 60 years old or more who were admitted to Siriraj Hospital during June 2006 to March 2007. Socio-demographic data, Barthel index, WHOQOL-BREF and Harris hip evaluation were used during data collection. Percentage, mean, McNemar, paired ttest, Fisher’s exact and Chi-square tests were used for statistical analyses. There was improvement of post-operative quality of life compared to the pre-operative one. The physical domain and the overall quality of life achieved statistically and clinically a significant improvement (p<0.001, both). The other domains, the psychological and environmental domains, also showed a statistically significant difference with the p value of 0.031 and 0.016, respectively. There was no significant difference within the social domain (p=0.625). The factors significantly associated with post-operative quality of life were the persons who lived with the patients and the post-operative activity of daily living with the p value of 0.020 and <0.001, respectively. The older patients who lived with their family and those who gained independent status after the surgery had better post-operative quality of life compared to the older patients who lived with the others and who had dependent status after the surgery. In conclusion, every effort should be made by health personnel to let the patients gain their physical function and achieve their independent status e.g. early ambulation. The involvement of the family members in caring for the patients after surgery should also be promoted.

M.Sc.Epidemiology EPIDEMIOLOGY มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ปี 2550

surgery, Quality, fracture, life, HIP, OLDER