A multicenter study on hip fractures in Thailand.

The present study is a multicenter study on hip fractures aimed at estimating the incidence among Thais. It also describes treatment modalities, associated medical care costs, complications, outcome of orthopedic care, length of stay in hospitals and duration of delay in seeking orthopedic care after occurrence of fractures. An extremely low hip fracture incidence of 7.05 per 100,000 population was found. Hip fracture was shown to increase steeply with age. An average of 26.44 days of delay in seeking orthopedic care following occurrence of hip fractures was reported. In contrast to the belief in Western countries that almost all hip fractures will seek orthopedic care, 7.8 per cent of these Thai cases denied orthopedic care during admission to hospitals. Median of charge to patients was 11205.00 baht, over one fourth of the national income per capita (36,563).