In Australia, 90,000 people undergo hernia surgery each year, with older men at highest risk.

A new Australian study shows who is most at risk of needing hernia surgery. Hernias are one of the most common diseases and operations in hospitals worldwide.

Half of the 435,826 adult hernia repairs performed in Australia between 2017 and 2021 were for inguinal hernias, with 89.6% of operations performed on men.

Using data from the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW), researchers at the University of South Australia evaluated the figures for five different types of hernia operations and determined which age groups and genders are most at risk.

People between the ages of 60 and 64, especially men, are at the highest risk overall. However, women are more prone to treating femoral hernias in the upper part of the thigh and incisional hernias, a common side effect of abdominal surgery.

When it comes to surgery for an epigastric hernia or other hernias in the abdomen, men of all ages are at much higher risk. However, women between the ages of 20 and 39 are more likely to need epigastric hernia surgery (between the breastbone and the belly button) than men in their age group.

The results were published in Critical public health Diary.

UniSA researcher and co-author Dr Marianne Gillam says that despite the high annual surgery rates worldwide, there are few studies that have examined the epidemiology of different types of hernia surgery on a large scale.

“There are about 20 million hernia operations performed worldwide each year, of which about 90,000 are performed in Australia,” says Dr Gillam.

Researchers say men are more prone to hernias because they smoke more often, exercise a lot, have bladder problems, chronic respiratory diseases, high blood pressure and heart disease.

“It is important that we are aware of patients who are at higher risk for hernia surgery so that we can develop health campaigns and policies to improve their quality of life and reduce their hernia risk.”