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Updated: Sep 6, 2025
Method and Instrumented Fixture for Femoral Fracture Testing in a Sideways Fall-on-the-Hip Position
Published on: August 17, 2017
Recent fall and high imminent risk of fracture in older men and women
Kyoung Min Kim1,2, Li-Yung Lui1, Steven R Cummings1,3
1San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Background:
despite fall history being a well-known risk factor for falls and fractures, the association between very recent falls and imminent fracture risk is not clearly elucidated.
Objective:
to study the very recent (<4 months) fall-related absolute risk of fractures in the following year.
Methods:
two large prospective cohort studies of women (Study of Osteoporotic Fractures [SOF]) and men (Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study [MrOS]) aged 65 years or older were included. Data on falls were collected every 4 months, and the primary outcomes were any non-spine and hip fractures in the next 12 months.
Results:
a total of 9,704 women contributed 419,149, and 5,994 men contributed 223,885 four-monthly periods of observations during the 14.8-year SOF and 12.6-year MrOS follow-up. Falls within 4 months indicated a high risk of non-spine and hip fractures in the following year for both sexes; in women, a recent fall indicated an 8.1% absolute risk of a non-spine fracture within 1 year, a 2.5-fold higher risk than that in women without falls, a 2.5% absolute risk of hip fracture, and a 3.1-fold increased risk. Falls increased the risk of fractures regardless of whether a fracture occurred or not. Men had similar risk patterns, albeit with a lower absolute risk of fracture.
Conclusions:
in older people, a fall within 4 months indicates a high risk of fracture in the next year, regardless of fracture occurrence. A recent fall warrants urgent evaluation and consideration of treatments to reduce the imminent risk of fractures.
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