Diet and hip fractures among elderly Europeans in the EPIC cohort.
OBJECTIVE
Evidence on the role of diet during adulthood and beyond on fracture occurrence is limited. We investigated diet and hip fracture incidence in a population of elderly Europeans, participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition study.


METHODS
29, 122 volunteers (10,538 men, 18,584 women) aged 60 years and above (mean age: 64.3) from five countries were followed up for a median of 8 years and 275 incident hip fractures (222 women and 53 men) were recorded. Diet was assessed at baseline through validated dietary questionnaires. Data were analyzed through Cox proportional-hazards regression with adjustment for potential confounders.


RESULTS
No food group or nutrient was significantly associated with hip fracture occurrence. There were suggestive inverse associations, however, with vegetable consumption (hazard ratio (HR) per increasing sex-specific quintile: 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.85-1.01), fish consumption (HR per increasing sex-specific quintile: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.85-1.02) and polyunsaturated lipid intake (HR per increasing sex-specific quintile: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.82-1.02), whereas saturated lipid intake was positively associated with hip fracture risk (HR per increasing sex-specific quintile: 1.13, 95% CI: 0.99-1.29). Consumption of dairy products did not appear to influence the risk (HR per increasing sex-specific quintile: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.93-1.12).


CONCLUSIONS
In a prospective study of the elderly, diet, including consumption of dairy products, alcohol and vitamin D, did not appear to play a major role in hip fracture incidence. There is however, weak and statistically non-significant evidence that vegetable and fish consumption and intake of polyunsaturated lipids may have a beneficial, whereas saturated lipid intake a detrimental effect.
Department of Hygiene, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece. vben@nut.uoa.gr
V
V
Benetou
P
P
Orfanos
D
D
Zylis
S
S
Sieri
P
P
Contiero
R
R
Tumino
M C
MC
Giurdanella
P H M
PH
Peeters
J
J
Linseisen
A
A
Nieters
H
H
Boeing
C
C
Weikert
U
U
Pettersson
I
I
Johansson
H B
HB
Bueno-de-Mesquita
M
M
Dorronsoro
P
P
Boffetta
A
A
Trichopoulou
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004032:Diet; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014675:Vegetables / Q000378:metabolism
D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated