[Rates of hip fractures in Beijing China].

One-third of the world's hip fractures are said to occur in Asia, but there have been no validated studies of hip fracture rates in China. In 1988-1992 all 76 hospitals in Beijing reported 820 hip fracture admissions coded as ICD-9. Checking against original discharge logs, medical records, X-ray reports, operation notes and operating room logs of a random sample of Beijing hospitals to discover underestimated and misclassified cases. In order to estimate hip fracture treated outside hospitals, we also interviewed a random sample of 2113 women aged 50 and over with a 97% response rate in Beijing. Finally, we also surveyed 27 hospitals in the suburbs of Beijing, but have found that no Beijing residents had been treated for hip fracture outside the city. Based on the 1990 China census, age-standardized rates (per 100,000) of hip fractures in Beijing were 88 for women, 97 for men. From 1988 to 1992, the rates in Beijing increased 35% in women and 33% in men. This is the first validated population-based study on the rates of hip fractures in China that has confirmed the completeness and accuracy of reports of hip fracture cases and has estimated the degree of under-reporting of hospital discharge. Hip fracture rates in Beijing are among the lowest in the world but may rise rapidly.