Incidence of hip fractures in Jeju Island, South Korea: a prospective study (2002-2006).
BACKGROUND
This study was performed to estimate the incidence of hip fractures of people older than 50 years in South Korea.


METHODS
Information of patients over 50 years of age who had sustained a hip fracture were obtained from the records of eight hospitals in Jeju Island between 2002 and 2006 to calculate the incidence of hip fractures in this age group.


RESULTS
There were 820 hip fractures during the study period. The mean age of the patients at the time of fracture was 77.8 years (71.3 years in 181 men, 79.7 years in 639 women). The crude incidence was 128/100,000 (66.1/100,000 in men, 174.4/100,000 in women). The age-specific incidence according to the 10-year age groups increased from 19.3/100,000 for those 50 to 59 years of age to 1,095.4/100,000 for those over 90 years of age (18.9/100,000-960.4/100,000 in men and 19.7/100,000-1112.1/100,000 in women). The standardized incidence of hip fracture to the Caucasian population in the United States in 1990 was 100/100,000 for men and 207/100,000 for women.


CONCLUSIONS
Hip fractures will become an important socioeconomic problem in South Korea due to the rapid aging of the population.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cheju National University College of Medicine, Jeju, Korea.
Sang-Rim
SR
Kim
Yong-Chan
YC
Ha
Jang-Rak
JR
Kim
Rokho
R
Kim
Shin-Yoon
SY
Kim
Kyung-Hoi
KH
Koo
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology