SummaryThe aging of the world population is an indicator of improving health worldwide. In developed countries, increased longevity has been accompanied by a so-called "compression of morbidity", that is, although people live longer, they do not spend more years suffering a poor health status. However, hip fracture itself may reduce life expectancy in almost two years and one in five patients will require permanent health care. Epidemiological studies reporting the incidence of hip fracture in Spain are numerous. In most cases, they are retrospective and short-term studies, and their results have shown variations across regions. The overall incidence of hip fracture in our country, in subjects older than 65 years, have varied between 301 and 897/10 5 inhabitants, lower figures than reported in other European countries or in the USA. In this paper, we critically review the main published studies in Spain on the incidence of hip fracture.

SummaryOsteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease and the main effector of the development of fractures in people over 50 years. When analyzing the evolution of the incidence of hip fracture it is important to consider the effects of the implementation of the strategies undertaken to prevent and treat early forms of disease and falls. In most chronic diseases with an environmental etiological component, identified or not, an interval of several decades occurs between initial exposure to the main causative agent and the clinical onset of the disease. The systematic study of the secular trend of a disease shows different phenomena that help to understand its pathogenesis. At the same time, it constitutes an activity of surveillance that allows warn about its future relevance. The evolution of the incidence rate of hip fractures has not been uniform over time in different countries. It is a matter of great interest to identify whether the observed temporal changes in rates are associated with an aging population or the result of a large number of circumstances of the same population over time. In this paper we review the main studies published around the world that explore, in greater or lesser extent, in the analysis of the secular trend in the incidence of hip fracture in order to bring this concept to the reader and offer an overview on the evolution of the incidence of hip fracture and the causes of this evolution.

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