The incidence of hip fractures in Estonia, 2005-2012.

UNLABELLED: The incidence of hip fractures among individuals aged over 50 in Estonia and trends over time were assessed for 2005-2012. The incidence among women is relatively low, with the declining trend, but the rate among men is among the highest in Eastern and Central Europe. INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and trends of hip fractures among individuals over 50 years in Estonia in 2005-2012 and to increase understanding of the incidence of hip fractures in Eastern Europe. METHODS: We identified all patients aged 50 years or older with hip fracture (ICD-10 codes S72.0, S72.1 and S72.2) in 2005-2012 using medical claims data from the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Crude and age-specific incidence rates were calculated for men and women using the population of Estonia in 2005-2012. To adjust for age differences in the population, standardized incidence rates (SIR) were estimated. RESULTS: The SIR per 100,000 for the entire observation period was 209.2 (95% CI 204.2 to 214.2) in women and 215.6 (95%CI 208.2 to 223.1) in men, resulting in a female to male rate ratio of 0.97 (95% CI 0.84 to 1.11). Over the period of 2005-2012 the estimated SIR/100,000 ranged from 211.5 (95% CI 196.8-226.3) in 2005 to 183.7 (95% CI 170.8-196.7) in 2012 in women, and from 238.5 (95% CI 215.4-261.7) in 2005 to 187.9 (95% CI 169.0-206.8) in 2012, in men. For women, the decrease in SIR for the study period approached statistical significance (p = 0.058), and for the period of 2009-2012, we observed an accelerated 16% decrease (p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of hip fractures among Estonian women is relatively low, whereas the rate among men is among the highest in Eastern and Central Europe. In line with many countries, we found a recent decline in incidence among women.

The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in Estonia: an estimate based on rheumatology patients' database.

Sound epidemiological data are a basic requirement for decision making on the allocation of health care resources. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Estonia, where the paucity of epidemiological data has impeded health care planning for rheumatic conditions. The current paper presents the first effort to explore the epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Estonia. Electronic databases of all rheumatology units of Harju County, three national and one private, were searched for the records of RA (ICD-10 diagnoses M05 and M06.0) patients who had visited a rheumatologist during 2006 or 2007. Prevalence of RA was calculated for the age 20 years and older and for subsets according to age and gender, using the numbers from the patients' database in the numerator and the corresponding population numbers in the denominator. The total number of prevalent RA cases was 1,897, of which 85 % (n = 1,605) were women. The overall crude period prevalence 2006-2007 of RA in Harju County for the age group 20 years and older was 0.46 %. RA prevalence for both sexes increased with age until the age of 70-79 years and decreased subsequently. Prevalence of RA was significantly higher for women compared with men in all age groups. The prevalence of RA among women and men 20 years and older was 0.70 % (6.68-7.37) and 0.16 % (1.42, 1.79), respectively. Age-standardized (European population) prevalence rate was 0.44 %. The results are concordant with epidemiological data on RA prevalence derived recently in other European countries.