Histories including number of falls may improve risk prediction for certain non-vertebral fractures in older men.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether information on number of falls on a falls history screen predicts risk of non-vertebral and hip fracture.

METHODS

A cohort of 5995 community-dwelling men aged 65 years and older (mean 73.7) was followed over 7.2 years for incident non-vertebral fractures. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) (95% CI) for incident fracture comparing a history of one and two or more falls with no falls. Models were adjusted for age, clinic, body mass index, height, femoral neck bone mineral density and whether the participant had a non-trauma fracture after the age of 50. p<or=0.05 was considered to denote significance.

RESULTS

There were 498 incident non-vertebral fractures (15.5/1000 person-years) and 121 incident hip fractures (3.6/1000 person-years). Compared with men who had had no falls, the risk of non-vertebral and lower extremity fractures was significantly higher in men with one fall (HR = 1.54 (95% CI 1.22 to 1.96) and 1.91 (95% CI 1.36 to 2.67), respectively) and men with two or more falls (HR = 1.81 (95% CI 1.40 to 2.34) and 1.79 (95% CI 1.23 to 2.61), respectively). The risk of head/chest, upper extremity and hip fractures (HR = 2.22 (95% CI 1.42 to 3.49), 2.08 (95% CI 1.01 to 4.28) and 1.79 (95% CI 1.07 to 2.98), respectively) was significantly higher for two or more falls than no falls; however, equivalent risks were not significantly higher (HR = 1.36 (95% CI 0.88 to 2.20), 1.55 (95% CI 0.74 to 3.25) and 1.41 (95% CI 0.87 to 2.27), respectively) comparing men with one fall versus no falls.

CONCLUSION

Expanding clinical screens to include an assessment of fall frequencies may improve prediction of older men at risk of head/chest, upper extremity and hip fractures.