My 60-year-old mother fell and broke her pelvis. She had surgery, and now the doctors are worried she’ll get a blood clot. Is her age working against her?

Perhaps. A recent study showed that age may put patients with major pelvic injuries at a higher risk for blood clots. In this study, patients who developed blood clots were an average of 46 years old. In contrast, patients who didn’t form clots were about 35. Years seem to make a difference in patients with major pelvic injuries.

However, the rate of blood clots was only 14 percent overall when patients used mechanical devices that stimulate blood flow. Talk with your mother’s doctors about the best preventive care in her case.