PREVENT trial seeks to reduce hip factures in elderly

CHEPA members Andrew Costa and Jean-Éric Tarride are among a group of researchers awarded a CIHR 2020 Project Grant for: “The PREVENT trial: a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial of a multicomponent fracture prevention model for long-term care.” 

Hip fractures occur nearly twice as often for older adults residing in long-term care as in those living elsewhere. The research team, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Alexandra Papaioannou, who is a professor of medicine (division of geriatrics) at McMaster, developed the PREVENT program for use in long-term care homes. The program uses a tool (“fracture risk calculator”) based on a resident’s electronic health record to capture who is most at risk of fractures due to osteoporosis and falls.

The program then trains the health care team including doctors, pharmacists and nurses on the latest recommendations in making treatment decisions and suggests tools and strategies on how to best assist residents and their families in preventing falls. The study will examine the effectiveness of the PREVENT program in decreasing hip fractures.