Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.

<h4>Background</h4>Bone mineral density is known to decrease rapidly after the menopause. There is limited evidence about the separate contributions of a woman's age, menopausal status and age at menopause to the incidence of hip fracture.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>Ove...

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Main Authors: Emily Banks, Gillian K Reeves, Valerie Beral, Angela Balkwill, Bette Liu, Andrew Roddam, Million Women Study Collaborators
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009-11-01
Series:PLoS Medicine
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000181&type=printable
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author Emily Banks
Gillian K Reeves
Valerie Beral
Angela Balkwill
Bette Liu
Andrew Roddam
Million Women Study Collaborators
author_facet Emily Banks
Gillian K Reeves
Valerie Beral
Angela Balkwill
Bette Liu
Andrew Roddam
Million Women Study Collaborators
author_sort Emily Banks
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Bone mineral density is known to decrease rapidly after the menopause. There is limited evidence about the separate contributions of a woman's age, menopausal status and age at menopause to the incidence of hip fracture.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>Over one million middle-aged women joined the UK Million Women Study in 1996-2001 providing information on their menopausal status, age at menopause, and other factors, which was updated, where possible, 3 y later. All women were registered with the UK National Health Service (NHS) and were routinely linked to information on cause-specific admissions to NHS hospitals. 561,609 women who had never used hormone replacement therapy and who provided complete information on menopausal variables (at baseline 25% were pre/perimenopausal and 75% postmenopausal) were followed up for a total of 3.4 million woman-years (an average 6.2 y per woman). During follow-up 1,676 (0.3%) were admitted to hospital with a first incident hip fracture. Among women aged 50-54 y the relative risk (RR) of hip fracture risk was significantly higher in postmenopausal than premenopausal women (adjusted RR 2.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.22-4.04; p = 0.009); there were too few premenopausal women aged 55 y and over for valid comparisons. Among postmenopausal women, hip fracture incidence increased steeply with age (p<0.001), with rates being about seven times higher at age 70-74 y than at 50-54 y (incidence rates of 0.82 versus 0.11 per 100 women over 5 y). Among postmenopausal women of a given age there was no significant difference in hip fracture incidence between women whose menopause was due to bilateral oophorectomy compared to a natural menopause (adjusted RR 1.20, 95% CI 0.94-1.55; p = 0.15), and age at menopause had little, if any, effect on hip fracture incidence.<h4>Conclusions</h4>At around the time of the menopause, hip fracture incidence is about twice as high in postmenopausal than in premenopausal women, but this effect is short lived. Among postmenopausal women, age is by far the main determinant of hip fracture incidence and, for women of a given age, their age at menopause has, at most, a weak additional effect. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.
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spelling doaj-art-b00ad66d6dbf4a0d9336f3e63841a0d42025-08-20T02:02:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Medicine1549-12771549-16762009-11-01611e100018110.1371/journal.pmed.1000181Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.Emily BanksGillian K ReevesValerie BeralAngela BalkwillBette LiuAndrew RoddamMillion Women Study Collaborators<h4>Background</h4>Bone mineral density is known to decrease rapidly after the menopause. There is limited evidence about the separate contributions of a woman's age, menopausal status and age at menopause to the incidence of hip fracture.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>Over one million middle-aged women joined the UK Million Women Study in 1996-2001 providing information on their menopausal status, age at menopause, and other factors, which was updated, where possible, 3 y later. All women were registered with the UK National Health Service (NHS) and were routinely linked to information on cause-specific admissions to NHS hospitals. 561,609 women who had never used hormone replacement therapy and who provided complete information on menopausal variables (at baseline 25% were pre/perimenopausal and 75% postmenopausal) were followed up for a total of 3.4 million woman-years (an average 6.2 y per woman). During follow-up 1,676 (0.3%) were admitted to hospital with a first incident hip fracture. Among women aged 50-54 y the relative risk (RR) of hip fracture risk was significantly higher in postmenopausal than premenopausal women (adjusted RR 2.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.22-4.04; p = 0.009); there were too few premenopausal women aged 55 y and over for valid comparisons. Among postmenopausal women, hip fracture incidence increased steeply with age (p<0.001), with rates being about seven times higher at age 70-74 y than at 50-54 y (incidence rates of 0.82 versus 0.11 per 100 women over 5 y). Among postmenopausal women of a given age there was no significant difference in hip fracture incidence between women whose menopause was due to bilateral oophorectomy compared to a natural menopause (adjusted RR 1.20, 95% CI 0.94-1.55; p = 0.15), and age at menopause had little, if any, effect on hip fracture incidence.<h4>Conclusions</h4>At around the time of the menopause, hip fracture incidence is about twice as high in postmenopausal than in premenopausal women, but this effect is short lived. Among postmenopausal women, age is by far the main determinant of hip fracture incidence and, for women of a given age, their age at menopause has, at most, a weak additional effect. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000181&type=printable
spellingShingle Emily Banks
Gillian K Reeves
Valerie Beral
Angela Balkwill
Bette Liu
Andrew Roddam
Million Women Study Collaborators
Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
PLoS Medicine
title Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
title_full Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
title_fullStr Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
title_full_unstemmed Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
title_short Hip fracture incidence in relation to age, menopausal status, and age at menopause: prospective analysis.
title_sort hip fracture incidence in relation to age menopausal status and age at menopause prospective analysis
url https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000181&type=printable
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