Fractured lives
Research news
Lower quality of life is more likely to occur in Australian men who have suffered a fracture, compared to men who have never fractured, Deakin researcher Dr Sharon Brennan has found.
Importantly, Dr Brennan and her team have discovered that not only were perceptions of physical health lower post-fracture, but men also reported lower quality of life in other domains, including psychological health and satisfaction with their environment/surroundings.
As Head of Social Epidemiology at Deakin University’s Epi-Centre for Healthy Ageing in the IMPACT Strategic Research Centre, Dr Brennan has been researching musculoskeletal health, including osteoporosis, in men and women resident in Geelong and surrounding regions for more than a decade.
This particular study, recently published in the "Journal of Men’s Health", investigated 448 men aged 50-85 years enrolled in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS); 174 of whom had suffered a fracture at any skeletal site since the age of 20 years. Surprisingly, lower quality of life was not just associated with recent fractures, but also with fractures that had occurred more than 10 years earlier.
"It is a concern that, compared to men who had never fractured, men who had experienced a fracture more than 10 years prior were half as likely to report satisfaction with their quality of life in the physical health domain," said Professor Julie Pasco, Director of IMPACT.
"Furthermore, men who had experienced a recent fracture (within the past 10 years) were half as likely to report satisfaction with quality of life in the domain of psychological health, compared to men who had not fractured".
"This data increases our understanding of the repercussions of a fracture, and has implications for the delivery and impact of health care post-fracture. Clearly there is a need in the clinical and public health setting to consider both the physical and psychological consequences of fracture."
Dr Brennan explained that the research was adjusted for smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity and body mass index and suggested that men may be less likely to talk about mental or physical issues caused by the fracture with health care providers.
"We don’t know what the exact causes of this drop in quality of life are, but they could result from the effects the fracture has on their ability to keep working, or to participate in life with their family and friends, for instance."
"The research shows that clinicians need to be aware of the interplay between the psychological and physical consequences of fracture and treat the ‘whole’ person," she said.
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Dr Sharon Brennan