Prevalence of coxarthrosis in an urban population during four decades.

In the current study, in a survey of 4121 double contrast radiographs of the colon performed from 1987 through 1995, the hip joints were examined and classified with regard to the presence or absence of primary coxarthrosis. The data collection was performed in precisely the same manner as in two earlier studies undertaken on 3903 radiographs of the colon covering the years 1956 through 1962 and 4027 radiographs of the colon covering the years 1975 through 1982. In the current study the prevalence of coxarthrosis, the gender ratio, and distribution between bilateral and unilateral cases had not changed compared with the data from the two earlier studies. When pooling the three investigations, the age specific prevalence of primary coxarthrosis based on the 12,051 radiographs fits an exponential curve for which the prevalence of primary coxarthrosis increased from below 1% in the age group younger than 55 years to 10% in the age group older than 85 years. In the current study approximately half of the patients (55%) had undergone total hip arthroplasty. This was more than in the study from 1984 (35%). Among the surgically treated patients, lateral coxarthrosis was more common than was medial coxarthrosis.