Fracture admission trends in England over a ten-year period

Fractures are a common reason for admission to hospital around the world. Varying incidences have been reported but these are mainly based on small studies from individual centres. The aim of our study was to analyse fracture admissions in England over a ten-year period.

Data were collated from the Hospital Episodes Statistics database. Since 2004, data have been collected for all admitted patients in England using the International Classification of Diseases codes for the primary diagnosis. Data were analysed for the ten-year period between 2004-2005 and 2013-2014.

There were 2,489,052 fracture admissions in England over the 10-year study period. The risk of admission for fracture was 47.84 per 10,000 population. The rate of fracture admission has remained stable. Hip fractures were the most common fracture requiring hospitalisation (n=641,263), followed by distal radius fractures (n=406,313), ankle fractures (n=332,617) and hand fractures (n=244,013). Hip fractures accounted for 58% of hospital bed days, ankle fractures for 10%, and femoral shaft fractures and subtrochanteric femoral fractures for 5% each. The number of bed days per year for hip fractures has reduced from 1,549,939 bed days in 2004-2005 to 1,319,642 in 2013-2014.

This study provides an updated picture of the incidence of fractures that required hospital admission over a ten-year period in England. It may be used as a platform from which the effect of modern patient treatment pathways can be monitored.