health

Fractures are a common injury in the general American population,
although the location of fractures varies somewhat by age group. The
averageAmerican can expect to suffer two fractures over the course
of his or her life. According to the National Center for Health Statistics,
there are an average of 1.1 million hospitalizations and 3,450,000 visits
to outpatient emergency departments each year for fractures.
An additional 2 million fractures are treated in doctors’ offices.
Some specific annual statistics follow:

• Hip fractures: About 320,000.
  
• Fractures of the tibia (long bone in the lower leg):
  About 600,000; most caused by high-speed accidents,
  with the highest rates in teenaged males.
  
• Collarbone fractures: About 400,000.
  
• Stress fractures: More common in women than in men; found
  in 45 percent of competitive female long-distance runners.
  
• Fractures of the lower neck: About 11,000.

In people under age seventy-five, the most common fracture is
a wrist fracture. In people over seventy-five, hip fractures are
the most common injury. In people younger than fortyfive,
men are more likely to suffer fractures than women; in adults over
forty-five, however, women are more likely than men to suffer
broken bones. Over age sixty-five, women are three times as likely as
men to break a bone. More than two-fifths of fractures in the
United States occur at the person’s home, 23 percent inside the house,
and 19 percent on the grounds outside the house.