Abstract
The incidence of geriatric fractures in the population increases with ageing. A deeper insight into this relationship may bring about a better understanding of the fracture aetiology and thus allow for improvement in the prevention of fractures in elderly people.
This prospective study included 676 patients (469 women and 207 men) aged 65 and over. Relationships between the incidence of geriatric fractures in these patients and the season, weather phenomena (air temperature, atmospheric pressure, air humidity, wind speed, visibility, rain, snow, mist and storm) and global biometeorological data in the period from 1/2012 to 12/2013 were investigated.
Patients with high velocity trauma or those thological fractures were excluded. Time, the place of injury, comorbidities and chronic use medication were also recorded.
Weather forecast records with weather health loads (biotropic indices) were obtained from the commercial service Weather Underground and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The results were statistically analysed using the Statistika 12 programme.
The results showed that incidence of fractures was higher in winter months but there was no statistically significant correlation between the number of fractures and various weather characteristics. But a relationship between the incidence of geriatric fractures and the biometeorological data (biotropic index) for that day was significant (r=0.65, p=0.0401).
The majority of fractures occurred during the daytime (83.7%) and in the indoor environment (83.1%); of the latter fractures, 85.2% were home injuries. This study did not prove any statistically significant relationship between the incidence of geriatric fractures and different weather phenomena.
Nevertheless, it showed a higher incidence of fractures in winter, from Dec to Feb. Most fractures occurred in indoor environments and during the day.
A high value of the biotropic index was significantly related to the incidence of geriatric fractures.