Hip fracture in elderly women and reproductive history

Data routinely collected by nursing homes were used to examine the relationship between hip fracture and reproductive history as reflected by total number of living children. Recently interest has centered on exogenous estrogens and their effect on fractures in post-menopausal women; little attention has been given to endogenous factors. Among ever married women 65 years of age and older, a statistically significant inverse relationship between number of living children and the diagnosis of hip fracture was found. Among those of high parity (4 or more living children) the risk of hip fracture is 8% compared with 16% among those with 0 to 3 living children. The relative odds are 2.08 with 95% confidence interval (1.12, 3.84). These preliminary results using nursing home data have encouraged us to pursue the investigation of reproductive characteristics and their relation to fractures in post-menopausal women, using more refined measures than total number of living children, as well as taking into account possibly confounding factors such as race, weight, diet, smoking, activity level and use of exogenous estrogens.