Introduction:

Fractures are relevant injuries in the lives of individuals both for the cost of treatment and for the burden on working life. The information in our country about this pathology is scarce, so we set out to review epidemiological data available in the national health survey.

Material and methods:

The prevalence of fracture life was calculated for the entire sample and for adults over 55 years of age, with different logistic regression models estimated by sex for the likelihood of a fracture in life.

Results:

The prevalence of fracture life is 18%, with 25.1% for adults over 55 years of age, with higher prevalence observed in men than in women (22.5% and 13.8% respectively). In the male sex it was associated with fractures: age, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and BMI, while in the female sex it was associated: age, polypharmacy, marital status, and physical activity.

Conclusion:

An association was found between the occurrence of fractures and multiple known risk factors for chronic diseases, highlighting the relevance of fractures in the population. New evidence aimed at studying this phenomenon becomes imperative given the progressive ageing of the Chilean population.