Fragility fracture profile in a university hospital

Abstract

Introduction: About 200 million people in the world has osteoporosis. On average, a frac ture occurs every three seconds and its prevalence has been increasing exponentially in the last decade. Despite being a public health issue in Colombia, we lack statistics that show de magnitude of the disease.
Materials and Methods: It’s a cross-sectional descriptive study with an analytical component in patients with fragility fractures treated in the Emergency Department. The incidence has been calculated and the population characteristics described. We identified statistical significance associations between different variables.
Results: An incidence of 10.7 FF/100 fractures / year and 1.02 FF/100 patients treated at the ED/year was found. There was a higher incidence of fractures at 57 years old, 80% in women, mainly unemployed. Distal radius fracture had a higher prevalence, followed by hip and proximal humerous. 85% of the patients did not had osteoporosis previously. Statistically significant associations were found between age and location, sex and age, and sex and location. Discussion: With population aging, the incidence of FF has been increasing, we found demographic data like those reported in the literature; a higher frequency in women and mainly compromising the distal radius. Due to the methodological limitations of the study, it allows for new questions and hypothesis based on the associations we found. We consider important the identification, diagnosis, and early treatment in these patients since the risk of new falls, associated morbidity and mortality is reduced.
Evidence Level: III: Descriptiveanalytic study.