Epidemiology and burden of pelvic fractures: Results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Abstract

Introduction

Pelvic fracture is a severe injury resulting in high mortality and disability rate, and brought heavy health burden. However, existing research conclusions only restricted to the national level while global estimation of pelvic fracture was lack. We aimed to estimate the global incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) of pelvic fracture by region, age, gender, cause and sociodemographic index (SDI).

Materials and methods

Publicly available data was gained based on the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019. We calculated the estimated annual percent change (EAPC) to analyze the temporal trends of pelvic fractures from 1990 to 2019. Incidence, prevalence and YLDs were analyzed by region, age, gender, cause and SDI. Spearman's rank order correlation was used to determine the correlation between SDI and incidence, prevalence and YLDs.

Results

Globally, there were about 6 million incident cases, 18.8 million prevalent cases and 3.2 million YLDs cases of pelvic fractures for both sexes in 2019. The incidence number increased over 40% compared to 1990. However, the age standardized rate of incidence (ASIR) (EAPC = −0.22; 95% CI, −0.38 to −0.05), prevalence (ASPR) (EAPC = −0.42; 95% CI, −0.51 to −0.32) and YLDs (ASYR) (EAPC = −0.41; 95% CI, −0.50 to −0.32) all presented downward trends. Males had higher ASIR, ASPR and ASYR than females in each year from 1990 to 2019. The incidence, prevalence and YLDs rates were higher in males in early adulthood but exceeded in females at older age. A positive correlation was observed between ASIR and SDI (rho = 0.3732, p < 0.01). Regions with higher SDI tended to have higher ASIR, ASPR and ASYR than lower SDI regions. Falls and road injuries were the major causes of pelvic fracture at all ages and during the whole period.

Conclusion

The global health burden of pelvic fracture still remained high during the past thirty years. More policies and strategies are needed to face the challenge brought by population growth and aging.