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(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.
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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
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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