COMORBIDITY IMPACT ON SOCIAL FUNCTIONING AFTER HIP FRACTURE: POST ACUTE REHABILITATION ROLE

Objective: To analyze the impact of rehabilitation treatment on social functioning in older patients after hip fracture during the rehabilitation program. Methods: Study included 203 patients with hip fracture. Four groups were analyzed on rehabilitation: Group 1-at admission, Group 2-at discharge, Group 3-3 months post discharge and Group 4-6 months post discharge. Analyzed impairments included: musculoskeletal, neurological and cognitive. Impairment severity was graded by cumulative index rating scale for geriatrics (CIRS-G). Evaluation of social functioning was done with social functioning component (SFC) from quality of life (SF-36) questionnaire. Results: There is significant improvement in SF-36 SFC values for observed impairments from admission to 6 months post discharge for every severity degree (p<0.01), except for CIRS-G severity degree 4 for cognitive impairment, where significance was p<0.05. For the group of patients with musculoskeletal impairment there is significant difference between the values of SF-36 SFC concerning different severity degrees of CIRS-G only 6 months post discharge (p<0.05). Patients with neurological or cognitive impairments shown significant difference between the values of SF-36 SFC with regards to severity degrees of CIRS-G in all observational groups. Conclusion: Different degrees of observed impairments influence the degree of social functioning recovery in elderly after hip fracture.