Hip protector for elderly said ineffective

BOSTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Use of an energy-absorbing hip protector did not provide protection against hip fracture for nursing home residents, found a U.S. study.

Dr. Douglas P. Kiel, of Hebrew SeniorLife and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial from October 2002 to October 2004 to test the effectiveness of an energy-absorbing and energy-dispersing hip protector in reducing the incidence of hip fracture among nursing home residents.

The trial included 37 nursing homes in which 1,042 residents -- average age, 85 years; 79 percent women -- wore a hip protector on one hip, so that each participant served as his or her own control.

The hip protector consisted of an outer layer of polyethylene backed by a hard high-density polyethylene shield that was backed by ethylene vinyl acetate foam. Overall adherence of the participants was 73.8 percent.

After a 20-month follow-up, the study was terminated due to a lack of effectiveness. The researchers found that the incidence rate of hip fracture on protected hips -- 3.1 percent -- did not differ from the incidence rate on unprotected hips -- 2.5 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.