Epidemiology of proximal femoral fracture in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

Introduction

Osteoporosis is a major underlying cause of bone fractures in postmenopausal women and older people in general [1, 2]. Proximal femoral fracture (PFF) is the most severe consequence of osteoporosis, because of its frequency, effect on the quality of life, mortality, and economic costs [3].

Because of the increasing age of the population, a 15% increase in the number of PFF can be anticipated for the next decade [4]; however, the age-adjusted incidence of PFF has also been rising in recent decades [5] in the United Kingdom and other countries [6-11] for unknown reasons.

PFF rates differ among countries and races. Few studies of PFF incidence have been performed in Spain [10, 12, 13] and none in the Canary Islands. For this reason, we have studied the epidemiology of PFF in the Canaries and considered the clinical and economical aspects.

Materials and Methods

Gran Canaria is the most populated island of the Canarian Archipelago, located near the West African Coast. Its population is Caucasian, from Spanish, Portuguese and French origins. In spite of their geographic proximity to Africa, the Canaries are a part of Spain with its language and culture. Data obtained from the National Statistics Institute in 1990 estimated the resident population to be 704 757 people.

We performed a prospective study aimed at identifying every PFF that occurred in Gran Canaria …