Epidemiological transition to mortality and re-fracture following an initial fracture
Abstract
This study sought to redefine the concept of fracture risk that includes refracture and mortality. We analysed data obtained from 2046 women and 1205 men aged 60+ years, whose health status, including bone mineral density (BMD), has been monitored. During the 20-year follow-up period, among 632 women and 184 men with a first incident fracture, the risk of sustaining a second fracture was higher in women (36%, n=229) than in men (22%, n=41), but mortality risk was higher in men (41%, n=75) than in women (25%, n=156). Key predictors of subsequent fracture risk included advancing age (hazard ratio [HR] 1.17; 95%CI, 1.08-1.26) and low BMD (HR 1.41; 1.23-1.61). Predictors of mortality were male gender (HR 2.4; 1.79-3.21), advancing age (1.67; 1.53-1.83), and lower femoral neck BMD (1.16; 1.01-1.33). These results were incorporated into a prediction model to aid patient-doctor discussion about fracture vulnerability and treatment decisions.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Figures 3, Figure 3 - figure supplement 1, and Figure 3 - figure supplement 2.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Health and Medical Research Council (The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council grant,NHMRC 276413)
- Tuan V Nguyen
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of St Vincent's Hospital (Sydney) (HREC reference number: 13/254) and carried out according to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Guidelines, consistent with the Declaration of Helsinki (established in 1964 and revised in 1989) (US Food and Drug Administration). All participants have provided written informed consent.
Copyright
© 2021, Ho-Le et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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