Research

Mixed

Among older adults (aged 65+), higher consumption of fish or EPA+DHA is not associated with a reduced risk of hip fracture, and higher EPA+DHA intake may be associated with slightly lower femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) in those with high linoleic acid intake.

For adults over 65, increasing fish or EPA+DHA intake is unlikely to significantly reduce the risk of hip fractures. While fish is nutritious, it should not be relied upon as a primary strategy for bone protection. Instead, focus on evidence-based interventions such as weight-bearing exercise, fall prevention, and ensuring adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, as other factors appear more critical for bone health in this age group.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In this large prospective cohort of older adults, fish consumption was associated with very small differences in BMD and had no association with hip fracture risk.
Jyrki K. Virtanen et al. · Journal of Bone and Mineral Research · 2010

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort (5045 participants), long follow-up (11.1 years), multivariable adjustment, but observational design limits causal inference.

Source

Fish consumption, bone mineral density, and risk of hip fracture among older adults: The cardiovascular health study

Jyrki K. Virtanen et al. · Journal of Bone and Mineral Research · 2010

DOI 10.1002/jbmr.87

cohort · n=5045Cited 79×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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