Increasing incidence of forearm fractures. A comparison of epidemiologic patterns 25 years apart.

During 1980 and 1981, 1914 fractures of the distal forearm occurred in Malmö, Sweden. The age-specific incidence peaked in childhood and there was a large increase in women after the age of 50; in men there was a smaller increase after the age of 70. In comparison with the Alffram & Bauer (1962) study of the same population in 1953-57, the age-specific incidence in elderly women and men has almost doubled. There was almost the same incidence of shaft fracture of the ulna or radius as 25 years ago.