NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In nursing home residents who've had a hip fracture, bedsores and pneumonia are two key risk factors for death, according to a report in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

While both of these problems can be addressed, preventing hip fractures in the first place would be a better strategy, Dr. Sarah D. Berry told Reuters Health.

"Given the limited survival of nursing home residents with hip fracture, efforts to improve primary prevention of these fractures in the nursing home should occur," said Berry, from the Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston.

In their new study, Berry and colleagues analyzed data on 195 nursing home residents with hip fracture to assess risk factors for death. During a follow-up period of around 1.4 years, 150 of the subjects died.

Advancing age, male gender, and moderate or low functional status before hip fracture increased the risk of death after hip fracture, the investigators report, as did a diagnosis of anemia or heart disease.

Bedsores and pneumonia in the 6 months after hip fracture increased the risk of death by 70 percent, the researchers note. By contrast, hospital complications, delirium, and urinary tract infections were not predictors of death.

Infection was the most common cause of death following hip fracture, followed by dementia in women and heart-related causes in men.

"Nursing home residents who experience a hip fracture have a limited life expectancy," Berry said, summing up. "This is particularly true for male residents and those with poor functional status at the time of the fracture. Potentially modifiable complications, including pneumonia and pressure ulcers, are common and contribute to the high mortality following the fracture."

"Post-operative care plans that include prevention strategies to reduce pressure ulcers and increase vaccination and timely treatment of pneumonia may help reduce mortality in this frail population," she and her colleagues conclude in their report.

SOURCE: Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, online May 4, 2009.