Acceptability and compliance with wearing energy-shunting hip protectors: a 6-month prospective follow-up in a Finnish nursing home.

Objectives: to assess the acceptability and compliance with use of an energy-shunting hip protector in institutionalized elderly people. Design and setting: a 6-month prospective follow-up in a Finnish nursing home. Participants: 19 ambulatory nursing home residents with a high risk of hip fracture. Main outcome measures: the proportion of the residents who were willing to use the device, the number of hours of wearing the protector and the attitudes of the study subjects and the caregivers towards the appearance, comfort, fit, efficacy and laundering of the protector. Results: 12 of the 19 ambulatory residents (63%) agreed to use the protector. During the study period, these subjects wore the protector on average for more than 90% of their active days, i.e. the days they were mobile. Two subjects wore the protectors at night time; the rest only during waking hours. Mean wearing time during waking hours exceeded 90%. Conclusion: external hip joint protectors are a feasible strategy to prevent hip fractures in institutionalized elderly people. The attitude, education and motivation of the staff may be a factor in achieving good user compliance. Further community-based studies on acceptability and compliance in wearing external hip joint protectors are needed for verification of benefits to the general population of older people.