Post fracture care programs: Current status and recommendations

Post fracture care programs: Current status and recommendations

 

People sustaining fragility fractures often do not have access to appropriate refracture prevention treatments. In efforts to understand why, and to report on how these services are delivered in recent years, Akesson and colleagues undertook a literature review of current Post Fracture Service (PFS) provided in countries around the world. The evaluated the programs including types, effectiveness, economy and geography with the program types being Fracture Liaison Service, Orthogeriatric Service, other and Remote/virtual. It was found that fracture liaison services and geriatric/orthogeriatric services were the most common models of PFC programs, and both were cost-effective. However, while the number of publications reporting on these services has increased in recent years, many countries are still not reporting on their efforts even when numbers of fragility fractures are high. The authors concluded that coordinated services continue to be cost-effective with positive patient outcomes. However, they urge for expansion and refinement of the services models with more reporting on quality improvement studies to inform efforts to deliver more equitable and improved interventions to prevent further fractures.  

Dr. Krisina Akesson, lead author in the study reflected that “It is known that coordinated multidisciplinary services for secondary prevention of fragility fractures are effective and acceptable by patients, their families and carers, as well as being cost-effective. These outcomes have been reported repeatedly by numerous services across the globe over the past decades and yet many people are still not offered care. Our study provides context to help understand what services work in different setting however more research is required.”

For further information about secondary fragility fracture prevention contact the FFN Secondary Fragility Fracture Prevention SIG lead Robyn Speerin @RehabRobyn

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