Psychiatric illness and mortality after hip fracture

People with dementia or delirium have increased mortality in the 6 months after hip fracture, but depression might take longer to have an effect. We assessed the psychiatric status of 731 participants with hip fracture and analysed the effect of psychiatric illness on mortality during the next 2 years. We found that dementia, delirium, and depression all increased the risk of mortality (p<0·0001, p<0·0001, and p=0·0359, respectively), and that mortality differed significantly between hospitals (p=0·0003). We suggest that psychiatric interventions should be asssessed in hip-fracture patients with adequate follow up of outcome measures.