Ascertainment of incident hip fractures and mortality
Participants were contacted every four months by postcard (with phone follow-up for nonresponders)
to ascertain incident hip fractures or death; more than 95% of these contacts
were completed. Incident hip fractures were obtained from radiology reports. Cause of death
was determined from death certificates and, if available, other supporting documentation
(medical records, hospital discharge data) at each SOF clinic site. For consistency in coding
across SOF sites, all final outcomes (hip fracture and cause of death) were centrally
adjudicated by a physician at the SOF Coordinating Center. Final adjudicated cause of death
was done using ICD-9 codes and cause of death was categorized at the coordinating
center.31