Características epidemiológicas da fratura de fêmur em idosos no estado do Rio Grande do Norte entre 2008 e 2018

Abstract

Hip fracture is one of the most significant causes of mortality and loss of functionality in the geriatric population. Just as other diseases that are more frequently found in this age group, hip fractures have its importance increased as a result of the context of population aging that we live. It is an event related to substantial health services costs, especially considering that complications that are frequent in this age group and the long-term consequences of this event. As of the causes for the occurrence of hip fractures, osteoporosis is considered one of the most important. It is a disease characterized by a disturbance of the bone microarchitecture, resulting in bones that are fragile and more susceptible to fractures. Various studies indicate that the incidence of this disorder is substantial in all of Brazil, specifically in the South and the Southeast Regions of this country, when compared to the Northeast Region. On the other hand, studies restricted to the Rio Grande do Norte state do not exist. The data on the number of cases was collected from DATASUS, the population data was retrieved from the 2010 IBGE census, and then, the incidence was calculated. In this research, we found that the mean annual incidence of hip fractures was 173,76 cases/100.000 habitants, slightly inferior to the national incidence, but superior to the average incidence of the Northeast Region. The incidence of hip fractures was almost the double in women when compared to men (222,84 cases/100.000 habitants vs. 111,66 cases/100.000 habitants, respectively), that information is in accordance to the findings in literature about the topic. By analysing the age, we noticed that the most cases of hip fracture and deaths occurred in the patients aged 80 and over for all the examined time. The mean cost per hospitalization was R$2424,20 in our study. This value is noticeably low when compared to the amount presented in other articles on the Sistema Suplementar de Saúde and other countries, although it is similar to another study that used data from DATASUS. We speculate that the numbers that we found are underestimated and do not reflect upon the real impact of this event on the Sistema Único de Saúde. At last, we noticed that there was a significant increase in the number of cases in 2018 (36%) in comparison to the former year. This increase was more considerable in women (47%) in contrast to men. It is crucial to investigate in the future if this rise is punctual or if it means a change in the trends of hip fracture in this population.