Epidemiology of fractures caused by road traffic injury and falls in Dalian:2006-2012

WANG Zhi-cong; LIU Mo-zhen; YAN Chao; LI Kai-hua; ZHAO Guo-xin; WANG Ji; TANG Xin; LV De-cheng

Abstract：Objective To illustrate the epidemiology of fractures caused by road traffic injury and falls in Dalian and to provide references for the prevention and management of fractures .Methods We retrospectively re-viewed hospital records of fracture patients injured by road traffic accidents or falls from Jan .2006 to Dec.2012.A total of 8 037 patients from road traffic injury were identified ,of whom 16 cases resulted in death and the mortality rate was 0.20%.A total of 4 172 patients from falls were recorded ,of whom 9 cases died and the mortality rate was 0.22%.The clinical epidemiological analysis was made from aspects of gender ,age,types of fracture ,average hos-pital stay and hospital expense .Results There was an increasing trend of fall-induced fractures ,while the number of cases of traffic injury related fractures was comparable in those 7 years.The mortality rates due to the two causes were not significantly different(P>0.05).The road traffic injury related fractures disproportionally affected males of 20-60 years(73.97%) and mainly occurred in the third and fourth seasons (54.65%).However,the fall-in-duced fractures increased dramatically among those aged 55 or above for the female (65.56%) and mainly occurred in the first and fourth seasons(53.40%).The main types of the road traffic injury and falls were fractures of lower extremity limbs and hips respectively .The mortality rate of the road traffic injury-induced spinal fractures was the highest(0.62%).Both average hospital stay and hospital expense of road traffic injury were more than those of falls.Conclusion Fractures caused by road traffic injury and falls were faced with serious situation.It is necessary to make management and prevention measures according to their epidemiological characteristics in order to reduce the dam-age.