Preference for wine is associated with lower hip fracture incidence in post-menopausal women.
BACKGROUND
Past studies of relationships between alcohol and hip fracture have generally focused on total alcohol consumed and not type of alcohol. Different types of alcohol consist of varying components which may affect risk of hip fracture differentially. This study seeks to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption, with a focus on type of alcohol consumed (e.g. beer, wine, or hard liquor) and hip fracture risk in post-menopausal women.


METHODS
The longitudinal cohort consisted of U.S. post-menopausal women aged 50-79 years enrolled between 1993-1998 in the Women's Health Initiative Clinical Trials and Observational Study (N=115,655).


RESULTS
Women were categorized as non-drinkers, past drinkers, infrequent drinkers and drinkers by preference of alcohol type (i.e. those who preferred wine, beer, hard liquor, or who had no strong preference). Mean alcohol consumption among current drinkers was 3.3 servings per week; this was similar among those who preferred wine, beer and liquor. After adjustment for potential confounders, alcohol preference was strongly correlated with hip fracture risk (p = 0.0167); in particular, women who preferred wine were at lower risk than non-drinkers (OR=0.78; 95% CI 0.64-0.95), past drinkers (OR=0.85; 95% CI 0.72-1.00), infrequent drinkers (OR=0.73; 95% CI 0.61-0.88), hard liquor drinkers (OR=0.87; 95% CI 0.71-1.06), beer drinkers (OR=0.72; 95% CI 0.55-0.95) and those with no strong preference (OR=0.89; 95% CI 0.89; 95% CI 0.73-1.10).


CONCLUSIONS
Preference of alcohol type was associated with hip fracture; women who preferentially consumed wine had a lower risk of hip fracture compared to non-drinkers, past drinkers, and those with other alcohol preferences.
Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University School of Medicine, 1070 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, Stanford, CA 94304, USA. jkubo@stanford.edu.
Jessica T
JT
Kubo
Marcia L
ML
Stefanick
John
J
Robbins
Jean
J
Wactawski-Wende
Mark R
MR
Cullen
Matthew
M
Freiberg
Manisha
M
Desai
D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017698:Postmenopause; D012307:Risk Factors; D014920:Wine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*