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Age- and Sex-Related Patterns of First Fracture and Fracture Prevalence

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Abstract

There are few data documenting the pattern of prevalent fracture across the entire adult age range, so we aimed to address this gap by investigating the prevalence of fractures in an Australian cohort. All-cause (ever) fractures were identified for males and females enrolled in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (Australia) using a combination of radiology-confirmed and self-reported data. First fractures were used to generate age-related frequencies of individuals who had ever sustained a fracture. Of 1,538 males and 1,731 females, 927 males and 856 females had sustained at least one fracture since birth. The proportion of all prevalent fractures in the 0–10 year age group was similar for both sexes (~10 %). In males, the proportion with prevalent fracture increased to 34.1 % for age 11–20 year. Smaller increases were observed into mid-life, reaching a plateau at ~50 % from mid to late life. The age-related prevalence of fracture for females showed a more gradual increase until mid-life. For adulthood prevalent fractures, approximately 20 % of males had sustained a first adulthood fracture in the 20–30 year age group, with a gradual increase up to the oldest age group (49.1 %), while females showed an exponential pattern of increase from the 20–30 year age group (6.8 %) to the oldest age group (60.4 %). In both sexes, those who had not sustained a fracture in childhood or early adulthood generally appeared to remain fracture-free until at least the sixth decade. When considering the prevalence of adulthood fractures across the age groups, males showed a gradual increase while females showed an exponential increase.

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Acknowledgments

The study is supported by grants from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia and Amgen (Europe) GmBH. SLB is supported by a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and LJW is supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. The study was supported by the National Health and Medical Council (NHMRC), The University of Melbourne Research Grant Scheme, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), Perpetual Trustees, Amgen and the Geelong Region Medical Research Foundation, but they played no part in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or in preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. Sharon Brennan was supported by NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (#519404), and NHMRC Postdoctoral (Training) Fellowship (#1012472); Mark Kotowicz was a recipient of the grants from the NHMRC (projects #251638, #299831, #628582), Geelong Regional Medical Research Foundation, and Amgen (Europe) GmBH; Julie Pasco was a recipient of grants from the NHMRC (projects #251638, #299831, #628582), Geelong Regional Medical Research Foundation, Arthritis Foundation of Australia and Amgen (Europe) GmBH.

Conflict of Interest

Kara L Holloway, Sharon L Brennan, Mark A Kotowicz, Gosia Bucki-Smith, Amelia G Dobbins, Elizabeth N Timney, Lana J Williams and Julie A Pasco have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants and this study was approved by the Barwon Health Human Research and Ethics Committee and all participants provided informed consent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Epi-Centre for Healthy Ageing, Deakin University, 285 Ryrie Street, PO Box 281, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia

    Kara L. Holloway, Sharon L. Brennan, Mark A. Kotowicz, Gosia Bucki-Smith, Amelia G. Dobbins, Elizabeth N. Timney, Lana J. Williams & Julie A. Pasco

  2. Department of Medicine, NorthWest Academic Centre, The University of Melbourne, St Albans, VIC, 3021, Australia

    Sharon L. Brennan, Mark A. Kotowicz & Julie A. Pasco

  3. Barwon Health, Ryrie Street, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia

    Mark A. Kotowicz & Julie A. Pasco

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  1. Kara L. Holloway
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  5. Amelia G. Dobbins
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Correspondence to Kara L. Holloway.

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Holloway, K.L., Brennan, S.L., Kotowicz, M.A. et al. Age- and Sex-Related Patterns of First Fracture and Fracture Prevalence. Calcif Tissue Int 96, 38–44 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-014-9936-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-014-9936-6

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