Injury · Oct 28, 2026

Hand fracture as a sentinel event for frailty in older adults

By Bollard SM, Kneafsey SL, Duggan J et al.

Hand fractures may represent a sentinel event for vulnerability beyond skeletal frailty alone. We compared longitudinal frailty outcomes in 48 adults ≥ 65 years old presenting with hand fracture with n = 96 age-, sex- and frailty-matched community-based controls. Incident frailty occurred in 17.8% of the fracture cohort compared to 7.8% of controls, over a median follow-up of 3.2 years. This higher observed incidence suggests that hand fracture may identify older adults vulnerable to subsequent frailty, and frailty assessment may complement fracture risk assessment in this cohort.

doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2026.113819PubMed 42977610Populations