11 Factors Help ID Hip Fracture Risk
11 Factors Help ID Hip Fracture Risk
Researchers Design Survey to Predict Fracture Risk in Older Women
As a group, African-Americans have a lower risk for osteoporosis and hip fracture than whites. Being overweight is also protective while being underweight is a risk factor for hip fracture.
These associations have long been known, but Robbins says clinicians often place too much importance in them, ignoring other important factors associated with age-related fracture.
"All things being equal, an African-American woman does have a lower risk than a Caucasian woman, but if all things aren't equal that isn't true," he says. "An African-American woman who has broken her wrist or has a parent who broke a hip may have a risk that is equal to or greater than a Caucasian woman."
Robbins says he hopes the new model will raise awareness among doctors and their elderly female patients about the multiple factors of hip fracture risk.
Because the study included only women, it is not clear if the identified risk factors are equally important in men.
In a separate study, reported in the same issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, low bone density was found to be linked to trauma-related, non-spinal fractures in older adults -- such as those resulting from car crashes.
It had been widely assumed that these trauma-associated fractures were not indicative of low bone-mineral density in the elderly, but researchers from the San Francisco Coordinating Center found the opposite to be true.
They write that the findings highlight the importance of evaluating elderly patients who have suffered trauma-related fractures for osteoporosis.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Mayo Clinic researcher Sundeep Khosla, MD, echoes the sentiment. "Fractures previously defined as due to high trauma, such as those from a blunt injury in a motor vehicle crash or a fall from a chair, can no longer be dismissed as being unrelated to osteoporosis," Khosla writes. "Older patients who sustain such fractures should be considered for bone mineral density testing and, if clinically indicated, [receive] further evaluation for osteoporosis."
11 Factors Help ID Hip Fracture Risk
Researchers Design Survey to Predict Fracture Risk in Older Women
Race, Weight, and Hip Fractures
As a group, African-Americans have a lower risk for osteoporosis and hip fracture than whites. Being overweight is also protective while being underweight is a risk factor for hip fracture.
These associations have long been known, but Robbins says clinicians often place too much importance in them, ignoring other important factors associated with age-related fracture.
"All things being equal, an African-American woman does have a lower risk than a Caucasian woman, but if all things aren't equal that isn't true," he says. "An African-American woman who has broken her wrist or has a parent who broke a hip may have a risk that is equal to or greater than a Caucasian woman."
Robbins says he hopes the new model will raise awareness among doctors and their elderly female patients about the multiple factors of hip fracture risk.
Because the study included only women, it is not clear if the identified risk factors are equally important in men.
Osteoporosis and High-Trauma Fractures
In a separate study, reported in the same issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, low bone density was found to be linked to trauma-related, non-spinal fractures in older adults -- such as those resulting from car crashes.
It had been widely assumed that these trauma-associated fractures were not indicative of low bone-mineral density in the elderly, but researchers from the San Francisco Coordinating Center found the opposite to be true.
They write that the findings highlight the importance of evaluating elderly patients who have suffered trauma-related fractures for osteoporosis.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Mayo Clinic researcher Sundeep Khosla, MD, echoes the sentiment. "Fractures previously defined as due to high trauma, such as those from a blunt injury in a motor vehicle crash or a fall from a chair, can no longer be dismissed as being unrelated to osteoporosis," Khosla writes. "Older patients who sustain such fractures should be considered for bone mineral density testing and, if clinically indicated, [receive] further evaluation for osteoporosis."
Source...