Research

Adherence

Current smoking is the primary modifiable risk factor for hip fracture burden, contributing to 7.5% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost, followed by physical inactivity (5.5%) and type 2 diabetes (2.8%).

To reduce your risk of hip fracture and the associated loss of healthy life, prioritize quitting smoking and maintaining regular vigorous physical activity. These two behaviors account for the majority of preventable hip fracture burden in older adults. While maintaining a healthy weight is important, note that this study suggests higher BMI (up to obesity levels) may mechanically protect against hip fractures, though this comes with other health risks.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Current smoking was the risk factor responsible for the greatest hip fracture burden (7.5%, 95% CI 5.2–9.7) followed by physical inactivity (5.5%, 2.1–8.5), history of diabetes (2.8%, 2.1–4.0), and low to average BMI (2.0%, 1.4–2.7)
Nikos Papadimitriou et al. · The Lancet Public Health · 2017

Why this rating

Large pooled analysis of prospective cohorts (n=223,880) with long follow-up (mean 13 years).

Source

Burden of hip fracture using disability-adjusted life-years: a pooled analysis of prospective cohorts in the CHANCES consortium

Nikos Papadimitriou et al. · The Lancet Public Health · 2017

cohort · n=223880Cited 274×
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