 THURSDAY, Feb. 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Abdominal obesity is associated with increased risk of hip fracture, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine.Anne Johanne Søgaard, Ph.D., from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, and colleagues examined the correlations of waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, and body mass index with incident hip fracture. Data were collected for 19,918 women and 23,061 men, aged 60 to 79 years, who were followed for a median of 8.1 years.
From electronic health registers, the researchers identified 1,498 hip fractures in women and 889 in men. There was a decrease in the risk of hip fracture with increasing body mass index, plateauing in obese men. After adjustment for body mass index and other potential confounders, there was a correlation for higher waist circumference and higher waist-hip ratio with increased risk of hip fracture. Compared with women in the lowest tertile of waist circumference, those in the highest tertile had an 86 percent increased risk of hip fracture; in men, the corresponding increased risk was 100 percent. Particularly in men, the risk of hip fracture was increased considerably with lower body mass index combined with abdominal obesity. “In view of the increasing prevalence of obesity and the number of older people suffering osteoporotic fractures in Western societies, our findings have important clinical and public health implications,” the authors write. Abstract |