The role of sociodemographics in the occurrence of orthopaedic trauma

•Our results indicate that a link exists between sociodemographic factors and occurrence of orthopaedic injuries.•The most common cause of injury varied within age groups, by sex, and within the different socioeconomic groups.•Higher risks were associated with black race, male sex, age, penetrating trauma, and low socioeconomic status. We sought to determine the effects of sociodemographic factors on the occurrence of orthopaedic injuries in an adult population presenting to a level 1 trauma center. We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients who received orthopaedic trauma care at a level 1 academic trauma center. 20,919 orthopaedic trauma injury cases were treated at an academic level 1 trauma center between 01 January 1993 and 27 August 2017. Following application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, a total of 14,654 patients were retrieved for analysis. Out of 14,654 patients, 4602 (31.4%) belonged to low socioeconomic status (SES), 4961 (32.0%) to middle SES and 5361 (36.6%) to high SES. Following adjustment for age, sex, race, insurance status and injury severity score (ISS), patients belonging to middle SES vs. low SES (OR 0.77 [95% CI 0.63-0.94]; p = 0.009) or high SES vs. low SES (OR 0.77 [95% CI 0.62-0.95]; p = 0.016) had lower odds of receiving a penetrating injury as compared to a blunt injury. The results from this study indicate that a link exists between sociodemographic factors and the occurrence of orthopaedic injuries presenting to a level 1 trauma center. The most common cause of injury varied within age groups, by sex, and within the different socioeconomic groups.