FRACTURE INCIDENCE IN ENGLAND AND WALES - A STUDY BASED ON THE POPULATION OF CARDIFF

Despite the importance of fractures as an economic and health problem, and consequent interest in osteoporosis, few workers have previously attempted to define the overall incidence of fracture. This population based study was based in the Accident and Emergency Department of Car diff Royal Infirmary and identified all patients presenting with fract ures of any type. Over a single year a total of 6467 fractures were id entified among the 306 600 people who live in the city of Cardiff. Thi s gives an overall fracture incidence of 21.1/1000/year, (23.5/1000/ye ar in males and 18.8/1000/year in females); a result very similar to t hose from similar work in the USA, Australia and Norway. This result i s over twice the previous estimate of fracture incidence in the UK; th e figure of 9/1000/year from the only equivalent study performed since the 1960s. In part, this discrepancy appears to reflect our more rigo rous definition of the study population, and our improved ascertainmen t of minor fractures. We believe our result to offer the most accurate estimate of fracture incidence currently available for a UK populatio n. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.