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A study unveiled at the 2024 annual gathering of the American Geriatrics Society uncovered a troubling association between hip fractures in elderly individuals and the onset of dementia, underscoring potential health ramifications for aging communities.

Priya Singh, a second-year medical student at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health in New York, acknowledged the results and stressed that individuals who suffered a hip fracture exhibited over twice the probability of developing possible or probable dementia compared to those who did not encounter such injuries.

"Those who had a hip fracture had a more than double likelihood of developing possible or probable dementia compared to the control group," Singh noted, Medscape reported.

Singh and her colleagues conducted their investigation using data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), focusing on Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older residing in community or non-nursing home settings. Tracking participants until 2019, they identified 137 individuals who reported hip fractures within the previous year, alongside a control group comprising 2435 subjects.

The analysis, which adjusted for various factors including age, race, ethnicity, and Medicaid status, revealed a notable association between hip fractures and cognitive decline. Specifically, participants in the hip fracture group exhibited a higher likelihood of transitioning from normal cognitive function to possible or probable dementia.

Among the hip fracture cohort, 7.1% displayed signs of possible dementia, contrasting with 1.4% in the control group. Similarly, 7.8% of individuals in the hip fracture group met criteria for probable dementia, compared to 4.4% in the control group.

Despite the statistically significant results, researchers cautioned that the study could not definitively attribute cognitive decline solely to hip fractures, acknowledging the potential presence of undetected cognitive impairment preceding these injuries.