Rate of hospital admissions for hip fracture in persons aged 65 years or older
The population of Slovenia has been among the elderly for more than a decade. The aging of the population is a recent demographic phenomenon, as the increase in the proportion of old people in the population appeared in a more pronounced form only in the twentieth century. Due to the aging of the population in developed countries and in our country, an increase in the number of people injured due to accidental and intentional injuries is expected in the coming decades. Currently, around 600 people over the age of 65 die from injuries and poisoning in Slovenia every year, 10 times as many are hospitalized, and 44,000 of them seek medical help in primary health clinics. The rate of hospitalization due to unintentional injuries among adults over 65 years of age has been increasing significantly over the past fifteen years, while the mortality rate has been decreasing. Thus, in the last decade, injuries of the elderly have become an important public health problem, as they are expensive for the health care system, usually have serious consequences and lead to irreversible functional impairment, institutionalization and death. As in other countries, in Slovenia too, hip fracture is the cause of one third of hospitalizations due to falls and the main cause of death due to injuries in people over 65 years of age. In a fall, 10 to 25% of people over the age of 65 suffer severe injuries that lead to loss of mobility and independence and an increased risk of death. For many older people, this is the event that forces them to leave their homes and move into residential care. To stimulate our interest in this current problem and to initiate discussion, we present data on hip fracture in people over 65 years of age. With the help of an in-depth analysis of the situation in the field of injuries of the elderly population, we can determine the risk factors for the occurrence of injuries and measures for their prevention.
The hip fracture hospitalization rate describes the number of hip fracture hospitalizations in persons aged 65 years or older per 1,000 population in the observed calendar year.
An age-standardized rate is calculated, which enables mutual comparison of populations with different age structures.
Rate per 1,000 inhabitants.
The standardized rate of hospitalization for hip fracture is the ratio of the number of hospitalizations with the main discharge diagnosis of femoral neck fracture in persons aged 65 years or older in the observed calendar year to the number of residents aged 65 or older in the middle of the same year, multiplied by 1,000.
The disease categories according to the ICD-10 classification, which are included in the calculation, are: S72.0, S72.1 and S72.2. Only first admissions for hospital treatment due to these diagnoses are included.
Hip fractures in the elderly population
The direct standardization method is used for standardization, where the Slovenian population from 2014 is used as the standard population. The publications show the average of several consecutive years.
Record of Diseases, Poisonings, and Injuries Requiring Hospital Treatment, National Institute of Public Health.
Population, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.
Data on hospital treatments are published annually.
- National Institute of Public Health ( http://www.nijz.si/ )
- Health for All Database ( http://data.euro.who.int/hfadb/ )
Data are available for calendar years with a time delay, which is the result of checking and harmonizing data with other sources.