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This is reflected in the data from two investigations, coordinated by the Preventive Medicine and Public Health and Rheumatology services of the Fundación Alcorcón University Hospital (HUFA), and which have been published in Osteoporosis International where the results on the association between air pollution and incidence of hip fracture are reported, and in Archives of Osteoporosis, where the results of seasonality and its association with climatology are shown.
“The first of the studies describes, for the first time, the association, in the short term, between high levels of certain pollutants (NO2 and SO2) and the incidence of hip fracture. Therefore, on those days with the greatest contamination, there is a greater incidence of hip fracture”, explains the professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the URJC, Ángel Gil de Miguel.
Due to the nature of the study, the mechanism involved in the association between hip fracture and contamination cannot be established. However, it is speculated that contaminating factors produce an increased risk of falling. The effects of pollution on people are multiple, but fundamentally they act at the cardiorespiratory level. There is evidence that certain environmental pollutants produce alterations in the control of heart rhythm. In frail elderly people, exposure to high levels of pollution could alter the heart rate and thus produce orthostasis, which is known to increase the risk of falling.
Autumn and winter, seasons with more falls
"Furthermore, the second investigation suggests that similar to what happens in the Nordic countries and other countries with latitude greater than 50º, in our environment, there is a seasonal pattern of hip fracture, characterized by an increase in fracture hip in autumn and to a lesser extent in winter. This pattern differs from that described in countries with a latitude greater than 50º, in that the highest incidence in these countries is observed in winter”, according to Ramón Mazzucchelli, a URJC researcher in the HUFA Department of Rheumatology.
The data also show that, in the short term, different weather conditions influence the development of hip fractures. Autumn and winter, for example, are the seasons in which the greatest number of cases occur, with respect to the months of spring and summer, which would explain the different seasonal patterns of the aforementioned fractures. The mechanism involved in this association is through the increased frequency of falls in older people, in relation to the presence of slippery surfaces.
It has also been analyzed whether climatic and air quality conditions influence this seasonal pattern and researchers have observed that climatic variables such as fog, frost, rain and low temperatures are associated with this seasonal pattern.
Osteoporosis International https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-018-4605-7
Archives of Osteoporosis https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657-018-0438-4