Hip Protectors for Hip Fracture Prevention in Older Adults
Hip Protectors for Hip Fracture Prevention in Older Adults
This course includes
Overview
Most falls prevention work is aimed at stopping the fall. Hip protectors do something different: they accept that some falls will happen and work to change what those falls cost. For frail older adults, that distinction matters, because a hip fracture is one of the few injuries that can permanently redraw a person's independence, and most of them begin with a sideways landing onto the greater trochanter.
This online course looks at the devices themselves, at what the evidence supports and where it falls short, and at the design, fit, and adherence factors that separate a protector that prevents a fracture from one that spends the day in a drawer. You will work through the differences between energy absorbing and energy shunting designs, how the flooring underneath a resident interacts with impact force, and why the evidence base looks so different in long term care than it does in the community.
The course opens with real video footage of falls captured in long term care, which makes the biomechanics concrete in a way a diagram cannot.
Learning Objectives
In this online course, we will:
- Review the types of hip protectors currently available, including energy absorbing and energy shunting designs.
- Examine the design properties that drive protection, including padding, coverage, and correct positioning over the greater trochanter.
- Evaluate the best available evidence on hip protector effectiveness across long term care, hospital, and community settings.
- Consider how flooring properties interact with hip protectors in reducing impact forces. ***
- Identify the enablers and barriers to hip protector use at the resident, staff, and organizational level.
- Discuss how adherence varies by device type and what that means for your prescription decisions.
Audience
This course is for any practitioner who works with older adults at risk of fracture. Hip protectors come up as a clinical recommendation, a family conversation, a purchasing decision, and a program design question, and most practitioners encounter at least two of those. Wherever you work, you will leave with a clear sense of when hip protectors are worth recommending, when they are not, and what has to be in place for them to do anything at all.
You will find this course directly applicable if you are:
- Working in long term care, where the evidence for hip protectors is strongest and where adherence, laundering, and staffing realities determine whether a device ever gets worn
- Practicing in hospital or rehabilitation settings, assessing fracture risk and planning discharge for patients returning to congregate care or home
- Seeing older adults in the community or in home care, where the evidence looks different and you need to explain that honestly to patients and families
- Educating residents, families, or staff, and needing a defensible answer to "should we be using these?"
- Leading a falls or fracture prevention program, or advising a facility weighing the cost of a hip protector rollout
- Teaching or supervising students who will meet this question in their first placement
Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, kinesiologists, and rehabilitation assistants will all find the material relevant. The course is available to all healthcare professionals and is brought to you by the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.
Why This Course Matters
Hip protectors occupy an awkward space in clinical practice. The evidence supports them in specific settings and specific conditions, which means a blanket recommendation and a blanket dismissal are both wrong.
Practitioners are regularly asked to weigh in on whether a facility should invest in them, whether a particular resident is a candidate, and what to tell a family who has just read something online. Answering those questions well requires knowing not just whether hip protectors work, but under what conditions they work, why adherence collapses in some settings, and what organizational supports make the difference. This course gives you that grounding, so you can make a recommendation you can defend and educate residents, families, and staff with confidence.
Related Learning
The instructors
PhD, MScPT, BSc (KIN)
Dr. Caitlin McArthur is an assistant professor in the School of Physiotherapy at Dalhousie University. Her research focuses on improving the effectiveness of and access to rehabilitation for people living with chronic health conditions across the continuum of care, particularly home and long-term care. She is interested in fall and fracture prevention and improving functional mobility.
With a passion to improve mobility and quality of life of clinically complex older adults, Dr. McArthur is a lead instructor of the continuing education course Bone Fit™ hosted by Osteoporosis Canada which teaches exercise professionals about safe movements, physical activity, and exercise for people with osteoporosis (www.bonefit.ca). Dr. McArthur is also an interRAI fellow (www.interrai.org). Read more about her research here.
Material included in this course
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Course Materials
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Welcome!
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Fracture Prevention Strategies for Frail Older Adults
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What Are Hip Protectors?
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Recommended Design Properties
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Hip Protector Fit
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Hip Protectors and Flooring Properties
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The Value in Using Hip Protectors
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Enablers and Barriers to Hip Protector Use
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Does Adherence Vary Based on Type of Hip Protector?
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Conclusion
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Questions
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Feedback
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Summary and Knowledge Check
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Summary and Key Insights
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Knowledge Check
Patient education included in this course
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Hip Protectors: What They Are and Whether They Might Help You
I'm a member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA). What are the discounts available to CPA Members on Embodia?
As part of our partnership with the CPA, we offer its members discounts on courses and Embodia Memberships. Learn more about the partnership on this page.
In order for the discount to be applied, you first need to authenticate your CPA membership. This is an important step as this is how Embodia 'knows' that you are a CPA member.
To authenticate as a CPA member, you need to sign in the CPA portal on this page, sign in to your CPA account, and then click the button on the page.
Please note that your email address on your CPA account must match your email address on Embodia. If needed, you can update your information on Embodia as outlined in this guide.
Is a certificate of completion included with this course?
Once you have completed the course, a certificate of completion (including learning hours and course information) will be generated. You can download this certificate at any time. To learn more about course certificates on Embodia please visit this guide.
This can be used for continuing education credits, depending on your professional college or association. If this course has been approved for CEUs in specific jurisdictions, it will be noted on the course page and CEU information may be added to your course certificate. Please read this guide for more information.
Do hip protectors prevent falls?
No. Hip protectors do not reduce the number of falls. They work by absorbing or redirecting impact energy away from the greater trochanter during a fall that has already happened, which is why they sit alongside balance training and environmental modification rather than replacing them.
Are hip protectors effective for older adults living at home?
The evidence is considerably weaker in community settings than in long term care. The course reviews why this gap exists, and adherence appears to be a large part of the explanation.
How long is the course and how long do I have access?
The course runs for just over 54 minutes and includes lifetime access after purchase plus a certificate of completion.