 |
Boomers wear out artificial joints:
Study: Young recipients may end up on waiting lists twice
NATIONAL POST
October 26, 2006
by Sharon Kirkey
The youngest of the Baby Boomers are wearing out their joints at a record
pace, not because they're growing older but because they're getting
fatter, a new study suggests.
Across Canada, joint replacements are increasing faster than the
population is ageing, with hip and knee surgeries up 87% over a 10-year
period ending in 2004-2005.
Most joint patients are 65 and older, but the greatest increases for the
operations were in the 45-to-54-year-old age group, where the rate of
knee replacements more than doubled among men, and more than tripled for
women.
Both genders in that age group saw a doubling in hip replacements.
Eighty-seven per cent of patients receiving artificial knees, and 74% of
hip patients, were overweight or obese. Joint patients "were rarely
underweight," according to the report released yesterday by the Canadian
Institute for Health Information.
Hospitals knew the bulge in demand for joints was coming, as ageing Baby
Boomers move through the system. But orthopedic surgeons call the
increase in younger patients -- and females in particular -- startling.
What's more, there will likely be another surge in demand as those new
joints wear out. Most data on how long mechanical joints last come from
people in their 70s, who tend to be thinner and less demanding on their
joints.
Females appear more vulnerable than men to joint disease if they put on
weight because of their proportionately smaller bones. The majority of
hip (57%) and knee (60%) replacement patients were women.
In B.C., the problem may not be excessive weight, but excessive
exercise. The province with the lowest obesity rates in Canada saw the
biggest increase in knee replacements over 10 years.
Knee replacements were up 105% in B.C. over the 10-year study period,
from 46.2 knee replacements per 100,000 population in 1994-95, to 94.9
per 100,000 population a decade later.
Treatment has also changed. Minimally invasive surgery, with its smaller
incisions and faster recovery times, is up, and hospital stays are down.
The average length of stay for a hip replacement was nine days in
2004-2005, down from 14 days a decade earlier.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised shorter waiting-time
guarantees for artificial hips and knees.
"The message can't be from this, 'Look at all the joints we've done,
what's the problem?' We're just catching up appropriately and we're not
even really cracking where we need to be for this very, very successful
intervention that can radically change someone's life," says Dr. Dunbar,
chair of the scientific advisory committee for the Canadian Joint
Replacement Registry.
Doctors are predicting almost a doubling in demand for joint replacement
over the next 10 to 20 years just as more surgeons are set to retire.
"It's a bit of a perfect storm," he says.
»
Return to Health Frontiers
|
|
|
|
 |
 Health
Frontiers: Issue 5
|
