Journal of Trauma & Treatment

Using Big Data to Develop the Epidemiology of Orthopedic Trauma

Abstract

Yi-Hui Lee and Nan-Ping Yang

In many countries, a long-term registered electronic medical database has been established by public authorities, which could be used to investigate the epidemiology of orthopedic injuries or degenerative disorders. Three basic epidemiological study designs could be applied to a big-data for healthcare to study orthopedic medicine: crosssectional study, retrospective case-control study, and retrospective cohort study. From the viewpoint of epidemiology, nationwide descriptive estimations of orthopedic injuries or disorders presented as the point prevalence (or incidence) with the 95% confidence interval and subsequent analysis of risk factors (or prognostic factors) evaluated by various statistic methods are valuable to policymakers when considering the redistribution of medical and social resources.