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History of falls shows patients’ risk for future fractures
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Researchers from England recommend that physicians ask elderly patients for their fall history to gauge the risk for future fractures, according to a recent study in Bone.
“In a clinical setting, when asking whether a patient has fallen is quick and easy. Nearly 60% of all hospital admissions due to fractures in England are the result of a fall,” Mark H. Edwards, BSc MBChB MRCP, lead author and clinical research fellow at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, stated in a press release. “Fracture prediction is extremely important to allow us to target treatments to those at greatest risk: assessing falls history provides us a further tool with which to do so.”
Mark H. Edwards
Edwards and colleagues studied 3,225 patients at baseline with an approximate age of 65 years; there were 170 incident fractures of the 2,777 patients available at mean 5½-year follow-up.
The majority of fractures were in women with a previous fracture, with distal radial and ulna fractures being the most common. Men were more at risk for sternum and rib fractures. Lower femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) and a history of falls since age 45 years were risk factors for both men and women.
Falls were a risk factor independent of both femoral neck BMD and other clinical risk factors and its inclusion improved the prediction of fractures in men by 6%, the researchers stated in the study.
Reference:
Edwards MH. Bone. 2012;doi:10.1016/j.bone.2012.11.006.
Disclosure: This authors received supported from the Medical Research Council of Great Britain; Arthritis Research UK; the International Osteoporosis Foundation; NIHR Nutrition BRU, University of Southampton and the NIHR Musculoskeletal BRU, University of Oxford to conduct this study.
