Elderly female nursing home residents have fewer skeletal fractures than women who live at home. They are also older when those fractures occur, according to the results of a new study.

Researchers studied men and women aged 60 or older who were diagnosed with hip fractures at Geneva University Hospital from 1991 to 2000. They found that the hip fracture rate decreased by 1.3% each year throughout the 1990s among women who were nursing home residents.

The researchers attribute the reduction in fractures to two factors: A higher usage of prescription of calcium, vitamin D and to a lesser extent of osteoporosis medications, and, the enhanced preventive care nursing home residents receive when they are at risk for falls.