This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Low sodium levels linked with fractures, falls in the elderly

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Older adults with even slightly decreased levels of sodium in their blood, a condition known as hyponatremia, experience more fractures and falls, according to Dutch investigators who presenting their findings at the American Society of Nephrology’s 2010 Annual Meeting and Scientific Exhibition.

“Screening older adults for [hyponatremia] and treatment of hyponatremia in older adults may be an important new strategy to prevent fractures,” investigator Ewout J. Hoorn, MD, PhD, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, stated in a press release from the American Society of Nephrology.

However, hyponatremia did not seem to affect the risk of osteoporosis in this study. Therefore, Hoorn and colleagues believe more research is needed to understand the link between sodium levels and fracture risk, according to the release.

The 6-year follow-up included more than 5,200 Dutch adults older than 55 years with initial information on sodium levels and other health parameters. About 8% of study participants had hyponatremia (399 subjects). The hyponatremia group had higher rates of diabetes and were more likely to use diuretics than individuals who had normal levels of sodium, based on the release.

The hyponatremia group experienced more falls (24%) during the follow-up period than the group with normal sodium levels (16%), yet their bone mineral density did not differ. Therefore, investigators concluded that hyponatremia was unrelated to any underlying osteoporosis.

Nevertheless, the group with low sodium levels had higher fracture rates, with an adjusted risk of vertebral fractures that was 61% higher and risk for non-spinal fractures that was 39% higher than adults with normal sodium levels.

“Although the complications of hyponatremia are well recognized in hospitalized patients, this is one of the first studies to show that mild hyponatremia also has important complications in the general population,” Hoorn stated.

Reference:

• Hoorn EJ, Zietse R, Zillikens MD. Mild Hyponatremia as a risk factor for fractures: The Rotterdam Study. Paper F-FC232. Presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 2010 Annual Meeting and Scientific Exhibition. Nov. 18-21, 2010. Denver.

Follow ORTHOSuperSite.com on Twitter