At the time of hospital admission for surgical treatment of their hip fracture, hip fracture patients are reported to be malnourished, and

the nutritional status can deteriorate further during hospital admission because of a spontaneous reduction in food intake due to lack of appetite or nausea [4–9]. Malnutrition in hip fracture patients is reported to be associated with impaired muscle function, disability, loss of independency, decreased quality of life, delayed wound healing, higher complication rate, prolonged rehabilitation time, and increased mortality rate [7, 8, 10–17]. Both hip fracture patients and malnourished patients in general have www.selleckchem.com/products/CX-6258.html an increased use of health care as compared with well-nourished and non-fracture patients, and it is expected that it would result in higher health care costs [18–21]. Early treatment of malnutrition is of vital importance to minimize losses and to achieve rapid weight recovery after hip fracture. In the past decades, several studies have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of nutritional supplementation on length of stay, postoperative complications, mortality, nutritional status and functional status. Furthermore, within the past decades, economic evaluations have gained more and more attention, and their importance has increased

because of the

continuous rising health care expenses and the limited EPZ015938 budgets available. As a consequence, new or additional treatments should not only have to be effective but also cost-effective. Methisazone Previous research on costs and cost-effectiveness of nutritional support or intervention is scarce. A few studies have shown that health care costs can be reduced by nutritional support in malnourished Wortmannin elderly [20, 22, 23]. Kruizenga et al. [24] reported that nutritional screening and treatment of malnourished patients at an early stage of hospitalization is cost-effective. Although several studies have shown the effectiveness of nutritional support in elderly hip fracture patients, none of these studies have incorporated an economic or cost-effectiveness evaluation. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the cost-effectiveness of an intensive dietary intervention comprising combined dietetic counseling and oral nutritional supplementation, as compared with usual nutritional care in elderly subjects after hip fracture from a societal perspective with a time horizon of 6 months. Methods Subjects Eligible were patients admitted for surgical treatment of hip fracture, aged ≥55 years [25]. Patients were excluded if they had a pathological or periprosthetic fracture; a disease of bone metabolism (e.g.