Sampling
Following institutional ethics approval, patients were
enrolled in the study between October 1999 and
September 2000. A purposeful sampling approach was
used with subjects being matched for age and comorbidity
status. Patients were excluded if the fracture was caused
by a malignancy, if clinically assessed as suffering from
dementia or if their comprehension of English was such
that they were unable to understand the questions required
in the data collection instruments. A total of 101 patients
were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of fractured
neck of femur during the study period. Two patients were
excluded as a result of a pathological fracture, 21 patients
were excluded because of dementia. Twenty patients were
not included due to unwillingness to participate or having
been admitted to the hospital and subsequently having
surgery during the weekend. Consequently, the final
sample size of 57 subjects represents 56.4% of all
potential subjects during the study period.