A new study from Associate Professor Ilana Ackerman of Monash University and AOANJRR Deputy Director Richard de Steiger has used AOANJRR data to predict rates of joint replacement and their associated impact on the Australian budget.
The study, published yesterday in
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, forecast rates of knee and hip replacements and the impact of rising levels of obesity in the Australian population.
"The results provide a strong policy and public health argument for supporting weight-loss campaigns and interventions," said Professor de Steiger. "Strategies to reduce national obesity could produce important knee-replacement savings."
The study demonstrate's the ability of the AOANJRR to synthesise the rich data it has gathered with the assistance of orthopaedic surgeons across the country for nearly two decades, and its ability to accurately inform health policy. The Registry now contains data on more than 1.3 million joint replacement operations, with more added every day from hundreds of hospitals around Australia.
Read
the full media release here, and find out more about the AOANJRR on
the Registry website.