Associations Between Patients' Primary Spoken Language and Perioperative Outcomes After Hip Fracture.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, the role of a patient's primary spoken language (PSL) has emerged as a potential contributor to perioperative outcomes. This study aimed to identify the association between a patient's PSL and hip fracture perioperative outcomes, including hospital length of stay (LOS), in-hospital mortality, nonhome discharge, 30-day emergency department visits, 90-day readmissions, and 90-day complications.

METHODS

An institutional review board-approved retrospective cohort study was performed using institutional data. Two cohorts were created for patients who underwent either open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) or arthroplasty (total or hemiarthroplasty) for a hip fracture in 2016 to 2023 in a multihospital academic health system. Within each cohort, patients with non-English and English PSL were matched 1:3 based on age, sex, insurance, American Society of Anesthesiologists Classification, dementia, and obesity. Generalized linear models measured associations between PSL and outcomes, adjusting for Charlson Comorbidity Index; adjusted odds ratios are reported for binary outcomes and adjusted mean differences are reported for continuous outcomes.

RESULTS

The matched cohorts included 729 patients undergoing ORIF and 473 undergoing arthroplasty. In multivariable analyses in the ORIF cohort, non-English PSL (versus English) was associated with a markedly longer LOS by an average of 0.95 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28 to 1.62, P = 0.01) and decreased likelihood of discharge to a nonhome setting (odds ratio = 0.62, 95% confidence interval, 0.39 to 0.98, P = 0.04). For arthroplasty, non-English PSL (versus English) was markedly associated with shorter LOS by an average of 1.04 days (95% CI, -1.99 to -0.09, P = 0.03). No notable associations were identified between PSL and the other outcomes.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest language-based differences in perioperative outcomes for surgical management of hip fracture. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms of these associations and evaluate the clinical significance on long-term outcomes.