Comparison of Mobility and Health‐Related Quality of Life Between Hemiarthroplasty and Total Hip Arthroplasty for Femoral Neck Fractures in the Elderly: A Post Hoc Analysis of a Prospective Cohort Study

PURPOSE: To compare the mobility and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for femoral neck fractures (FNFs) in the elderly treated with either hemiarthroplasty (HA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). METHODS: This study constitutes a post hoc analysis of a prospective cohort study. In this secondary analysis, we enrolled patients aged ≥ 65 years who underwent arthroplasty for FNFs at a tertiary hospital in Beijing, China, between 2018 and 2019. Patients were stratified into the HA group and THA group based on the surgical type. All patients were followed up via telephone at 30, 120, and 365 days postoperatively. The Fracture Mobility Score (FMS) was utilized to assess patients' mobility, while the EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) instrument was adopted to evaluate their HRQoL. Intergroup comparisons, multivariate logistic regression models, and linear regression models were used to compare outcomes between the two groups and analyze the impact of surgical type on these outcomes. RESULTS: Among 416 eligible patients, 333 completed all three follow-up evaluations, including 250 patients in the HA group and 83 in the THA group. Multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders indicated that patients in the THA group were significantly more likely to achieve unrestricted mobility at 120 and 365 days postoperatively compared with the HA group (OR [95% CI] = 2.407 [1.210-4.788], p.adj = 0.012; OR [95% CI] = 2.410 [1.120-5.183], p.adj = 0.024), with no significant difference observed at the 30-day follow-up. In addition, multivariate linear regression models adjusted for 12 covariates demonstrated that the THA group achieved significantly higher EQ-5D scores at 30 and 120 days postoperatively (p.adj = 0.003 and p.adj = 0.003, respectively). However, this advantage was not sustained at the 365-day follow-up (p.adj = 0.100). CONCLUSION: THA may yield a higher probability of independent mobility recovery and better postoperative HRQoL than HA in elderly patients with FNFs.