In patients 40 years and above a total of 3096 hip fractures (783 in males and 2313 in females) occurred in the entire county of Funen, Denmark from 1 July 1973 to 30 June 1979. The incidence of hip fractures increased exponentially with age in both sexes. During the survey the number of hip fractures in females showed a marked increase above what could be explained by demographic aging alone, whereas this tendency was not so pronounced in males. Provided the observed increase in incidence rates prevails, aging of the population in combination with this increase will lead to a threefold increase in the number of hip fractures over a 20-year period. This is substantially more than other Scandinavian authors have reported.

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In a prospective follow-up study of 158 consecutive patients 18 to 64 years old with unilateral lower extremity fracture, our aim was to disclose the impairment and disability 6 months after the injury. The patients were interviewed within 1 week after the trauma, and all patients returned to the hospital for an interview and a clinical assessment 6 months later. The disability was measured by administering the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) to all patients by an interview process. SIP scores were calculated for pretraumatic and posttraumatic states. The pretraumatic SIP scores described the functional status before the injury. Additionally, three major aspects of impairments were measured 6 months after the fractures: range of motion, muscle strength, and pain. Most patients had a significantly higher SIP score 6 months after the fracture(s) than pretraumatically. The mean overall SIP score was 2.7 pretraumatically and 8.7 6 months posttraumatically. Major deficits in range of motion was observed, especially in the ankle joint. Additionally, loss of muscle strength was observed in the thigh and calf muscles in one fourth of the patients. Only low levels of residual pain were reported after 6 months.

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