Bunion Surgery and Fall Risk in Older Adults: Nationwide Claims Analysis

A retrospective cohort study of 127,990 US adults aged 50 and over with hallux valgus, comparing fall risk between surgical and non-surgical patients from January 2011 to April 2022. The research, authored by figshare admin karger, analyzed claims-based falls data with follow-up times up to 11 years. It found patients undergoing bunion surgery had a 42% lower long-term fall risk compared to non-surgical patients.

Use Cases

• Compare long-term fall rates between surgery and non-surgery cohorts using adjusted hazard ratios and absolute risk percentages.
• Analyze the temporal effect of bunion correction on fall risk using one-year versus 11-year follow-up hazard ratios (aHR 0.84 vs. 0.58).
• Investigate the relationship between patient age (50+) and surgical intervention rates (13.6%) within the hallux valgus population.
• Model fall risk prediction using covariates like treatment group (surgery/non-surgery) and follow-up duration (median 2905 vs. 2298 days).
• Study the prevalence of hallux valgus diagnosis and associated falls using diagnosis codes from commercial, state, and federal healthcare claims.

Strengths

• Large study population of 127,990 diagnosed patients with a substantial surgical cohort of 17,406 individuals.
• Longitudinal data with a median follow-up of over 6 years for the surgery group and extensive temporal coverage from 2011 to 2022.
• Analysis provides specific, adjusted statistical measures including hazard ratios (e.g., aHR 0.58) and absolute risk percentages (16% vs. 21%).

Limitations

• Dataset is very small (76.6 KB), suggesting it contains summary results or supplementary material rather than the raw patient-level data.
• Lacks detailed patient-level columns or sample data, limiting direct analysis of covariates, demographics, or individual claims.
• Relies on claims-based diagnosis codes for fall identification, which may not capture all fall events and is subject to coding inaccuracies.

Provenance

Source

PearlDiver, Inc. national database aggregating commercial, state, and federal US healthcare claims.

Collection Method

Retrospective cohort study comparing patients who underwent bunion surgery to those treated nonoperatively.

Time Range

January 2011 to April 2022, with patient follow-up for up to 11 years.

Freshness

Data covers up to April 2022, with the record last updated in April 2026.

Geography

United States.