TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends in Australian knee injury rates
T2 - An epidemiological analysis of 228,344 knee injuries over 20 years
AU - Maniar, Nirav
AU - Verhagen, Evert
AU - Bryant, Adam Leigh
AU - Opar, David Andrew
N1 - Funding Information: Conceptualisation: NM, EV, AB, DO; data curation: NM; formal analysis: NM; investigation: NM, EV, AB, DO; methodology NM, EV, AB, DO; visualisation: NM; writing - original draft: NM, EV, AB, DO; writing - review & editing: NM, EV, AB, DO. None. This analysis was based on open access data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. As such, all raw data is freely available. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Background: Acute knee injuries are a key predisposing risk factor for knee osteoarthritis. Public health interventions require in-depth epidemiological evidence to determine which knee injuries are problematic in critical age and sex demographics.Methods: Descriptive epidemiological analysis of longitudinal data on knee injuries (July 1998 - June 2018) from the National Hospital Morbidity Database in Australia were studied. The main outcomes where the population-related knee injury frequency, incidence per 100,000 and annual growth rate (%) over the 20-year observation period. Age-group and sex differences were also studied to determine demographic-specific trends.Findings: 228,344 knee injuries were diagnosed over the 20-year analysis period. Significantly rising annual incidences were observed for total knee injuries, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and knee contusions in males and females. Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries and knee dislocations were also rising in females, but not males. Greater annual growth rates were observed for females compared to males for total knee injuries, knee contusions, PCL injuries and knee dislocations. Demographic analysis revealed that the highest annual growth rate in injury incidence (10.4%) was observed for ACL injuries in females aged 5-14 years old.Interpretation: Increasing annual incidence of knee injuries was observed over the 20-year period. Males have a higher incidence of knee injury per capita than females, but the gap appears to have narrowed over the 20-year analysis period. Younger Australians show a precipitous rise in the annual number of ACL injuries, particularly for females aged 5-14 years. These trends warrant urgent intervention.Funding: None.
AB - Background: Acute knee injuries are a key predisposing risk factor for knee osteoarthritis. Public health interventions require in-depth epidemiological evidence to determine which knee injuries are problematic in critical age and sex demographics.Methods: Descriptive epidemiological analysis of longitudinal data on knee injuries (July 1998 - June 2018) from the National Hospital Morbidity Database in Australia were studied. The main outcomes where the population-related knee injury frequency, incidence per 100,000 and annual growth rate (%) over the 20-year observation period. Age-group and sex differences were also studied to determine demographic-specific trends.Findings: 228,344 knee injuries were diagnosed over the 20-year analysis period. Significantly rising annual incidences were observed for total knee injuries, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and knee contusions in males and females. Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries and knee dislocations were also rising in females, but not males. Greater annual growth rates were observed for females compared to males for total knee injuries, knee contusions, PCL injuries and knee dislocations. Demographic analysis revealed that the highest annual growth rate in injury incidence (10.4%) was observed for ACL injuries in females aged 5-14 years old.Interpretation: Increasing annual incidence of knee injuries was observed over the 20-year period. Males have a higher incidence of knee injury per capita than females, but the gap appears to have narrowed over the 20-year analysis period. Younger Australians show a precipitous rise in the annual number of ACL injuries, particularly for females aged 5-14 years. These trends warrant urgent intervention.Funding: None.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126847314&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100409
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100409
M3 - Article
C2 - 35345847
SN - 2666-6065
VL - 21
SP - 100409
JO - The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific
JF - The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific
M1 - 100409
ER -