A Review of Mindfulness and its Potential Supplementary Benefits for Enhancing Recovery in Older Community-Dwelling Mentally Alert Post Hip Fracture Surgical Patients

Among the many adverse and commonly devastating health outcomes faced by many community dwelling older adults and others are hip fracture injuries, which are well documented to impose immense and prolonged psychological as well as immense physical challenges to the aging individual, despite great improvements in surgical care and rehabilitation practices. However, while physical strategies to promote post surgical hip fracture recovery are quite well studied, and of considerable import, psychological interventions that might be of allied benefit are surprisingly quite limited, as well as non conclusive. This current general review aimed to examine the key documented ongoing health challenges and attributes observed post hip fracture by adults returning to the community setting after surgery, as well as the possible need for more psychological oriented interventions to minimize these often times persistent and disabling stresses. The review focused on what is evidenced in the context of older adults and hip fracture outcomes, and whether mindfulness intervention approaches in this regard would be helpful. Using data largely located in PUBMED over the time periods 2017 – 2021 it appears plausible to propose that persistent participation in one or more mindfulness approaches may prove helpful in cases that do not fully return to function after six months, but have no overt cognitive challenges. That is, regardless of the lack of current evidence, researchers who follow this line of inquiry are likely to find this largely overlooked intervention opportunity quite promising for alleviating the extent of this enormous ongoing and anticipated future public health burden.

Keywords: aging, hip fractures, mindfulness, quality of life, pain, psychological health, rehabilitation.