Elsevier, Bone, Volume 147, June 2021
Purpose: To investigate the monthly and seasonal variation in adult osteoporotic fragility fractures and the association with weather. Methods: 12-year observational study of a UK Fracture Liaison Service (outpatient secondary care setting). Database analyses of the records of adult outpatients aged 50 years and older with fragility fractures. Weather data were obtained from the UK's national Meteorological Office. In the seasonality analyses, we tested for the association between months and seasons (determinants), respectively, and outpatient attendances, by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test. In the meteorological analyses, the determinants were mean temperature, mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, number of days of rain, total rainfall and number of days of frost, per month, respectively. We explored the association of each meteorological variable with outpatient attendances, by regression models. Results: The Fracture Liaison Service recorded 25,454 fragility fractures. We found significant monthly and seasonal variation in attendances for fractures of the: radius or ulna; humerus; ankle, foot, tibia or fibula (ANOVA, all p-values
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Keywords:
Adult; Aged; Analysis Of Variance; Ankle Fracture; Ankle Fractures; Article; Clavicle Fracture; Disease Association; Epidemiology; Experience; Female; Fibula Fracture; Foot Fracture; Fragility Fracture; Human; Humans; Humerus Fracture; Incidence; Major Clinical Study; Male; Meteorological Phenomena; Middle Aged; Observational Study; Osteoporotic Fractures; Outpatient; Radius Fracture; Radius Fractures; Rain; Risk Factor; Risk Factors; Scapula Fracture; Season; Seasonal Variation; Seasons; Secondary Healthcare Utilisation; Sensitivity Analysis; Shoulder Fracture; Temperature; Tibia Fracture; Ulna Fracture; United Kingdom; Weather; Global