Research published in the Israel Medical Association Journal notes that Holocaust survivors who experienced hunger as children tended to recover less successfully from hip fractures than those who were not incarcerated in concentration camps.
The investigators, from the Shmuel Harofeh Geriatric Hospital in Be’er Ya’acov and Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Medical Faculty, studied 140 elderly patients admitted after hip fracture surgery to the hospital’s geriatric rehabilitation ward between 2010 and 2105. Their mean age was 82.5 years, and 62% were women.
Their rehabilitation was measured according to the Functional Independence Measure.
Forty-one percent of the elderly patients were Holocaust survivors, who as youngsters suffered from “hunger osteopathy,” in which their bones suffered damage due to inadequate diets and hunger, according to a news story that appeared in The Jerusalem Post.
After controlling for other factors, the researchers found that the Holocaust survivors were significantly more likely to have lower Functional Independence Measure numbers after treatment for their hip fractures.
In addition, they report that routine examination by a physician, illness, and hospitalization caused significant amounts of stress among the Holocaust survivors who participated in the study. Some even showed psychotic symptoms such as delusions of being in the camps again.
“As a result, due to misinterpretation of the medical staff’s actions and motives, the survivors may suffer from severe anxiety. They also show more depression and chronic pain,” the researchers write.
[Source: The Jerusalem Post]
