Can health visitors prevent fractures in elderly people?

Abstract

Objectives: To assess whether intervention by a health visitor could reduce the number of fractures, over a four year period, in those aged 70 and over.

Design: Randomised, controlled trial; randomisation by household.

Setting: General practice in a market town.

Subjects: Of 863 patients aged 70 and over on the practice records, 674 were traced and successfully interviewed; 350 were assigned to the intervention group, 324 as controls.

Intervention: The people in the intervention group were allocated to the care of a health visitor. The approach was four pronged: assessment and correction of nutritional deficiencies, including reducing smoking and alcohol intake; assessment and referral of medical conditions such as heart block or inappropriate medication; assessment and correction of environmental hazards in the home such as poor lighting; assessment and improvement of fitness--for example, exercise classes for the moderately fit. The intervention continued for four years.

Main outcome measure: Fracture rate over four years.

Results: The incidence of fractures was 5% (16/350) in the intervention group and 4% (14/324) in the control group (difference not significant).

Conclusions: A health visitor visiting a group of people aged 70 and over and using simple preventive measures had no effect on the incidence of fractures.