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Hip Fracture Risk in Women Increases With Age
Reported November 13, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The risk of hip fracture among postmenopausal
women is double that in premenopausal women, and is seven times higher in
70-year olds than in 50-year olds.
Women who had an early menopause before age 45 had a slightly increased
risk, but the effect of early menopause on the risk of hip fracture was
small compared to the effect of age itself.
The study by Emily Banks of The Australian National University, Acton,
Australia, and colleagues followed women who participated in the Million
Women Study, a national study of women's health involving 1.3 million UK
women aged 50 and over. At enrollment and three years later, the study
participants provided information about their menopausal status and other
health and lifestyle factors likely to affect their fracture risk.
"Our findings show that age is far more important than factors relating to
menopause in determining the risk of hip fracture," Banks and colleagues
were quoted as saying. "Hence, clinical decisions around hip fracture
prevention should be based on age, and age-related factors, such as frailty,
low body-mass-index, sensory impairment, and comorbidity, rather than on age
at menopause."
SOURCE: PLoS Medicine, November 10, 2009 |
