Bone Fracture In Older Adults

A bone fracture is a common diagnosis given at least once to most people during their lifetime. With the older population there is an increased level of worry as well as some differences of that of a young adult or child. When comparing an older adult and a younger adult suspected of a fracture, there are slight differences in areas such as: assessment findings, interventions provided and potential outcomes. As an older adult there is a higher potential for fractures because of Osteoporosis, or bone becomes weaker of time. Other factors contribute such as unsteady gait, visual disturbances and medications making bone weaker such as long-term steroid (Southerland, 2). When presented an older adult, it can be initially harder to diagnosis them with a fracture given their assessment findings can vary. Pain is not the best indicator of fracture in older adults because of possible delirium, dementia or peripheral neuropathy commonly due to diabetes. A fracture in an

Research tells us that about 25% of older adults who suffer a fracture will have a second fracture within the next 5 years (Southerland, 1). We also know that half of older adults will require home health care within 6 months following a fracture, and many of those people will have long-term functional decline. With this in mind it is clear to see why fractures can be so devastating in the older adult population. Often times an older adult is hospitalized for a fracture, due to the fracture they remain immobile for several days to weeks and eventually become extremely ill from a secondary infection such as pneumonia. Fractures in children or young adults most commonly cause slim to none permanent decline and outcomes are mostly positive after several months of recover. We must recognize that this is clearly not the case in the older adults. A fracture can drastically snowball into a mountain of emotional and physical limitations with negative