Association of Body Size at Birth and Childhood Growth With Hip Fractures in Older Age: An Exploratory Follow-Up of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.
Childhood growth has been linked with bone properties in adulthood, whereas less is known about the contribution of early growth to bone fracture risk. We investigated the association of body size at birth and childhood growth with hip fractures and pharmacotherapy for osteoporosis in older age. Men and women, born full term, from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (n = 8345) were followed until the age of 68 to 80 years. Height and weight from birth to 11 years were obtained from health care records and diagnoses of hip fractures and osteoporosis drug purchases from national registers. Independent associations of each age period were analyzed using Cox models adjusted for age, childhood and adulthood socioeconomic status, and drugs affecting bone metabolism. In men, the risk of hip fractures was nonlinearly associated with childhood growth. Compared to intermediate increase, low and high increase in height between 2 and 7 years (p < 0.001) were associated with all hip fractures and hip fractures sustained after the age of 50 years. Further, compared to intermediate gain, low and high gain in BMI between 7 and 11 years (p = 0.001) were associated with greater risk of hip fractures in men. In women, growth was not associated with the risk of hip fractures but greater weight (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.77 to 0.94; p = 0.001) and BMI (HR 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; p = 0.003) gain between ages 2 and 7 years were associated with a decreased risk of pharmacotherapy for osteoporosis. In men, growth was not associated with the risk of pharmacotherapy for osteoporosis. In conclusion, growth during childhood may contribute to the risk of hip fractures in later life among men. © 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Gerontology Research Center and Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Tuija M
TM
Mikkola
Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Gerontology Research Center and Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Mikaela B
MB
von Bonsdorff
Medical Research Council (MRC) Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK.
Clive
C
Osmond
Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Chronic Disease Prevention Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Minna K
MK
Salonen
Chronic Disease Prevention Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.|Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Research Center (MRC) Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Eero
E
Kajantie
Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Chronic Disease Prevention Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Johan G
JG
Eriksson
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D049628:Body Size; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D036801:Parturition; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
AGING; DEVELOPMENTAL MODELING; GENERAL POPULATION STUDIES; OSTEOPOROSIS; THERAPEUTICS