Air temperature and the incidence of fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations in older people

Summary Observation-driven Poisson regression models were used to investigate mean daily air temperature and fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations. After adjustment for season, day-of-week effects, long-term trend and autocorrelation, hip fracture rates are higher in both males and females aged 75+ years when there is a lower air temperature. Introduction This study investigated whether there was an association between fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations and air temperature at a day-to-day level, after accounting for seasonal trend and autocorrelation. Methods Observation-driven Poisson regression models were used to investigate mean daily air temperature and fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations for the period 1 July 1998 to 31 December 2004, inclusive, in the Sydney region of New South Wales, Australia, which has a population of 4 million people. Results Lower daily air temperature was significantly associated with higher fall-related hip fracture hospitalisations in 75+-year-olds: men aged 75–84 years, rate ratio (RR) for a 1°C increase in temperature of 0.98 with 95% confidence interval (0.96, 0.99), men 85+ years RR = 0.98 (0.96, 1.00), women 75–84 years RR = 0.99 (0.98, 1.00), women 85+ years RR = 0.98 (0.97, 0.99). Moreover, there were fewer hospitalisations on weekends compared to weekdays ranging from RR = 0.81 (0.73, 0.90) in women aged 65–74 years to RR = 0.89 (0.80, 0.98) in men aged 85+ years. Conclusions After adjustment for season, day-of-week effects, long-term trend and autocorrelation, fall-related hip fracture hospitalisation rates are higher in both males and females aged 75+ years when there is a lower air temperature.