Hips at risk osteoporosis and prevention of hip fractures

Sammanfattning: Hip fractures are the most serious consequence of osteoporosis, and are one important cause of morbidity and mortality among the elderly. Prophylactic treatment for hip fractures are now available. Early detection of individuals with increased risk for hip fractures is therefor of great interest. A subset of non-institutionalised patients with a first hip fracture (cases;n=l18) and controls (n=263), aged 65-85 years, underwent dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the femoral neck, quantitative ultrasound (QUS) of the heel and phalanges and radiographic absorptiometry (RA) of the phalanges. The entire cohort was followed for approximately four years or to death. In women, DXA of the proximal femur and QUS of the heel showed a high predictive value for an incident first hip fracture, adjusted odds ratio (OR) 3.6 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.4-5.5) and 3.4 (95%CI 2.2-5.0) respectively. The association was even stronger in men, but only for DXA of the proximal femu,r with an adjusted OR of4.8 (95%CI 2.3-9.9). Bone densitometry at non-weight-bearing sites, QUS and RA of the phalanges did not discriminate female cases from controls, but proved capable of separating male cases from controls. The risk of death was higher in cases than in controls, with a multivariate rate ratio (RR) of 3.4 (95%CI 1.7-7.0). There was no significant association between bone density and mortality. Nursing home residents underwent QUS of the heel and phalanges. Almost all of the female residents and 51% of the male residents were, if the WHO-criterion for osteoporosis was applied, osteoporotic as assessed by heel and finger QUS. The QUS values were approximately 1.5 SD lower than expected for age and gender. In this randomised controlled intervention study we evaluated the effect of external hip protectors in nursing home residents; 302 residents were allocated to wear such protectors and 442 were controls. External hip protectors were found to be effective in preventing hip fractures in nursing home residents, with an adjusted relative risk for hip fracture of 0.33 (CI 0.11 - 1.00).