Trends in low-energy mechanisms of injury at the regional trauma center in Stockholm, Sweden during 2014–2023

TL;DR

This study examines whether low-energy injuries have increased among trauma patients in Stockholm from 2014 to 2023.

Contribution

The study provides the first analysis of temporal trends in low-energy injury rates at a regional trauma center in Sweden.

Findings

The overall proportion of low-energy mechanisms of injury was 15%.

No statistically significant temporal trends were observed in low-energy injury rates.

Subgroup analyses also showed no significant trends in primary transport or blunt injury cases.

Abstract

The Swedish population is aging, and elderly individuals are more likely to sustain injuries from low-energy mechanisms of injury. Trauma has traditionally been a disease of the young, but elderly patients now account for the majority of deaths from external causes in Sweden. No recent studies have examined whether this demographic shift has translated into a higher rate of low-energy mechanisms of injury in the trauma population.

To investigate temporal trends in the proportion of low-energy mechanisms of injury at the regional trauma center in Stockholm during 2014–2023.

13188 patients treated at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna were obtained from the Swedish Trauma Registry. The annual proportion of patients with a low-energy mechanism of injury was calculated, and the temporal trends were assessed using weighted linear regression models. Two subgroups were also defined to separately analyze primary transports and patients with a blunt mechanism of injury.

The overall proportion of low-energy mechanisms in the cohort was 15% (n = 1978). No statistically significant temporal trends were observed in the study cohort (R2 = 0.07, p = 0.477), or in any of the examined subgroups of primary transport (R2 = 0.35, p = 0.073) or patients with blunt mechanism of injury (R2 = 0.29, p = 0.108).

There were no significant temporal trends in the rate of low-energy mechanisms of injury in patients treated at the regional trauma center during 2014–2023. Whether these findings are representative of the wider regional trauma cohort is uncertain.

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