title: Does hormone-replacement therapy prevent fractures in early postmenopausal women?
abstract: The purpose of this population-based prospective cohort study was to examine the effect of hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) on the risk of fractures. The study population consisted of 7217 postmenopausal women aged 47-56 years (mean, 53.3 years) at baseline from data taken from the Kuopio Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention Study (OSTPRE) in Finland. We compared fracture incidences between HRT users and nonusers. A total of 679 (9.4%) women recorded validated fractures during the 5-year follow-up. Of these, 268 (39%) women had a distal forearm fracture. Two thousand six hundred seventy women (37%) had used HRT >6 months during the follow-up--one-half of them continuously. The relative risk, estimated as hazard ratio with Cox regression, was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.58-0.82) for any fracture and 0.49 (0.36-0.66) for distal forearm fracture among HRT users as compared with never-users. After adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), number of chronic health disorders, fracture history, and time since menopause (independent risk factors) the corresponding risks were 0.67 (0.55-0.81) and 0.53 (0.37-0.74), respectively. The respective adjusted risks for continuous HRT users were 0.62 (0.48-0.79) and 0.41 (0.26-0.67). The adjusted risk of other than distal forearm fracture was 0.74 (0.55-0.98). The results suggest that HRT has a beneficial effect on prevention of fractures in general and on that of distal forearm fracture in particular in early postmenopausal women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: Kaisa M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Randell
authors.forename: Risto J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Honkanen
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kröger
authors.forename: Seppo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saarikoski
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005543:Forearm Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors