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Men had greater risk for death after osteoporosis-related fracture compared with women
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SAN DIEGO — Compared with women, men had a greater risk for death after an osteoporosis-related fracture, according to a press release and presentation at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
“Although women are more likely to sustain an initial, osteoporosis-related ‘fragility fracture,’ men have similar rates of incurring a subsequent fracture and are at greater risk for mortality after these injuries,” Alan Zhang, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said in the release.
Zhang and colleagues assessed the Medicare Standard Analytic Files (SAF) database to find 1,622,666 patients aged 65 years or older who were diagnosed with osteoporosis and had sustained a fragility fracture between 2005 and 2009. Of the patients, 87% were female. Researchers stratified patient records by sex and location of initial fracture. Researchers compared 1-year mortality rates and incidence of second fragility fractures between men and women during 3-year follow-up.
Researchers found women had a five-fold increased risk for initial fracture compared with men (ratio = 5.17). However, the risk became lower for women than men after researchers extended the findings to a 3-year window (ratio = 0.96). Men who required surgery for initial fracture had an increased risk for subsequent fracture within 3 years, except for men who sustained a vertebral compression fracture. In addition, men had higher 1-year mortality rates for all fracture types (18.7% vs. 12.9%), except for ankle fractures (8.1% vs. 8.4%) compared with women.
“The key findings from this study show that patient sex can affect the risk for sustaining a fragility fracture related to osteoporosis,” Zhang said. “These findings may be used to better counsel patients after an initial fragility fracture and to improve predictive tools for monitoring subsequent injuries.” – by Will Offit
Reference:
Zetumer SD, et al. Poster #553. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting; March 14-18, 2017; San Diego.
Disclosures: Zhang is a board or committee member for the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. Please see the study abstract for a list of all other relevant financial disclosures.