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Background: Osteoporotic hip fractures have been extensively studied in women, but they have been relatively ignored in men.

Objective: To study the mortality, morbidity, and impact on health related quality of life of male hip fractures.

Methods: 100 consecutive men aged 50 years and over, with incident low trauma hip fracture, admitted to Royal Cornwall Hospital, UK during 1995–97, were studied. 100 controls were recruited from a nearby general practice. Mortality and morbidity, including health status assessed using the SF-36, were evaluated over a 2 year follow up period.

Results: Survival after 2 years was 37% in fracture cases compared with 88% in controls (log rank test 62.6, df = 1, p = 0.0001). In the first year 45 patients died but only one control. By 2 years 58 patients but only 8 controls had died. Patients with hip fracture died from various causes, the most common being bronchopneumonia (21 cases …