Epidemiological comparison of pelvic fractures between middle and west areas in China from 2010 to 2011

Objective To investigate the epidemiological features of pelvic fractures in the middle and west areas in China from 2010 to 2011. Methods The cluster random sampling method was used to choose 42 hospitals from the middle and west areas in China (16 from the middle as group A and 26 from the west as group B). The data of fractures treated between January 2010 and December 2011 in these hospitals were collected by the PACS system. The patients were categorized into 4 age groups: children (1 to 15 years old), youth (16 to 44 years old), middle-aged (45 to 59 years old), and the aged (older than 60 years old). The analytic items were gender, age and AO classification. The epidemiological characteristics of pelvic fractures were analyzed and compared between groups A and B. Results A total of 5, 065 pelvic fractures were included, involving 2, 531 males and 2, 534 females with a male to female ratio of 1.00: 1. Age distribution showed that the peak age of pelvic fractures ranged from 41 to 50 years (22.80%). AO type 61-A was the most common (85.19%). The male to female ratio in group A (0.96:1) was insignificantly lower than in group B (1.04:1) (P>0.05). The average age in group B (42.0±17.9 years) was significantly younger than in group A (44.6±18.3 years) (P<0.05). The peak age was 41 to 50 years in both groups A and B, with a constitute ratio of 23.21% and of 22.33% respectively, showing a significant difference between groups (P<0.05). The constitute ratios of youth, middle-aged and aged groups were significantly different between groups A and B (P<0.05). The most common fracture type was AO 61-A in both groups A and B, with a constitute ratio of 84.45% and of 86.08% respectively. There were no significant differences between groups in the constitute ratios of AO types (P<0.05). Conclusions The middle and west areas had similar epidemiological features of pelvic fracture: numbers of male and female patients were nearly the same in the 2 areas; the peak age was from 41 to 50 years; the proportion of AO type 61-A was high. There were more female patients in the middle area, but more males patients in the west area. The average age in the middle area was larger than in the west area. There were differences between the 2 areas in the constitute ratios of age groups. Key words: Pelvis; Fractures, bone; Epidemiology; Case-control studies