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Stronger Bones, Longer Life Fractures related to osteoporosis may be a factor in death, a new study says 
Osteoporosis, the condition that weakens bones into a brittle state, affects more than 75 million people in the U.S., Europe and Japan alone, according to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, Nyon, Switzerland. And while many know the effects osteoporosis can have on quality of life, few consider its implications for the end of life. However, a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Ottawa, found that older people who break a hip have a 25 percent higher chance of dying within five years of the fracture, and that spinal fractures correspond with a 16 percent increase in death over the same period. The mortality rate associated with hip fractures was previously known but bone expert Dr. Warren Levy, CEO of Unigene Laboratories, Boonton, N.J., says it is underappreciated. “In any event, it underscores the seriousness of osteoporosis for those who take it for granted,” Dr. Levy says. “If you can minimize fracture incidence you may live longer. Unfortunately, most people don’t consider osteoporosis to be a life-threatening illness.” Nearly eight thousand Canadians 50 and older participated in the study, which also found that one in every six women over 50 will suffer a hip fracture. Lead author George Ioannidis, a health research methodologist at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., said that the hip fractures more than triple risk of death and spine fractures nearly triple it. Spinal fractures are much more common than hip fractures, Dr. Levy says. The effects of the fractures are assumed to apply to Americans as well as Canadians. |
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