Abstract
Objective To describe the temporal trends of osteoathritis (OA) according to hospital discharges
considering anatomical location, distribution by gender, age, more frequent conditions,
and geographic location in Chile between 2012 and 2018.
Methodology A retrospective, descriptive and population study which analyzed the public databases
of the Department of Health Statistics and Information (Departamento de Estadísticas
e Información en Salud, DEIS, in Spanish) of the Ministry of Health of Chile, in particular
the records with codes M15 through M19. Rates per 100 thousand hospital discharges
were calculated, as well as the percentage of OA according to the categories analyzed.
Results A total of 11,622,605 hospital discharges were found between 2012 and 2018. The total
number of hospital discharges due to OA was of 78,700. The distribution by gender
was similar over the years (∼ 40% and 60% among men and women respectively). Adults
aged between 65 and 79 years were the most affected, and their average rate was of
2,046 per 100 thousand discharges. It was also the group that presented the highest
increase (60%) in rate from 2012 to 2018. The Metropolitan Region (291.7 discharges)
and Valparaíso (89.6 discharges) presented the highest rates in Chile. The hip (56.6%)
and knee (31%) were the most frequent locations of OA, which presented similar distribution
by gender, age and geography when compared with the total discharges due to OA.
Conclusions Hospital discharges due to OA in Chile increased between 2012 and 2018, preferentially
in cases of hip and knee-joint OA in the group of elderly women in the central area
of the country
Level of evidence: Descriptive study.
Keywords
osteoarthritis - prevalence - hospital discharges - Chile - hip osteoarthritis - knee
osteoarthritis
