What you can do to lower your risk of hip fracture
Many risk factors can’t be changed, but a couple can.
First the details.
- More than 93,000 women in the Women’s Health Initiative (research into major health problems of older women) were used to develop an algorithm to predict the risk of hip fracture.
- About 68,000 women then validated the selected factors that predicted hip fracture.
- A subset of the women underwent bone mass density assessment.
And, the results.
- 11 factors were associated with increased fracture risk.
- Increasing age
- Fair to poor self-reported health
- Greater height
- Lighter weight
- Any fracture after age 54
- White race or ethnicity
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Current smoking
- Parental hip fracture
- Current corticosteroid use
- Diabetes treatment
The botom line?
The authors plan more research to confirm the value of their algorithm.
For the rest of us, it’s interesting that so many of these factors can’t be controlled — save 2.
However, as discussed in an earlier post, sedentary lifestyle and current smoking history, which can be controlled, are also associated with longevity.
1/9/08 23:19 JR
