Abstract
Objective The present study intends to describe the profile of hospitalization and ambulatory
rehabilitation of patients ≥ 50 years old due to hip fracture in the Brazilian Public
Health System (SUS, in the Portuguese acronym).
Methods This is a cross-sectional study of patients hospitalized due to hip fracture in the
SUS between 2008 and 2017. Data included 441,787 hip fracture-related hospitalizations
from the hospitalization database of the department of informatics of the Brazilian
Unified Health System (SIH/DATASUS, in the Portuguese acronym), and data of patients
who underwent rehabilitation from the ambulatory database of the department of informatics
of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SIA/DATASUS, in the Portuguese acronym.).
Results Most of hip fracture-related hospitalizations (83.5%) happen to people ≥ 50 years
old, with an average annual growth of 5.6% in hip fracture-related hospitalizations.
The costs for the government have been growing in the same proportion and reached
almost BRL 130 million in 2017, although with a 13.6% decrease in average cost per
hospitalization. Besides the financial impact, hip fractures result in an in-hospital
mortality rate around 5.0% in patients aged ≥ 50 years old. In addition, the percentage
of patients that have undergone hip fracture-related rehabilitation increased from
2008 (14.0%) to 2012 (40.0%), and remained stable after that.
Conclusions The progressive increase in the incidence of hip fractures shows the financial and
social impact, and the need for immediate actions to prevent this rising trend. Hip
fractures are a risk for secondary fractures, the prevention is crucial, and the orthopedist
plays a central role in this process.
Keywords
hip fractures - rehabilitation - datasus - secondary prevention
