Addison Disease Is a Risk Factor for Hip Fracture

FRIDAY, Feb 11 (HealthDay News)-Clinically diagnosed and undiagnosed cases of Addison disease (AD) are associated with hip fractures in patients aged 30 years or older, with the highest risk in women aged 50 years or younger, according to a study published online January 19 in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Sigridur Bjrnsdottir, MD, from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and colleagues examined data collected from 1964 to 2006 pertaining to 3219 patients without prior hip fracture in whom AD was diagnosed at age 30 years or older and 31,557 age- and sex-matched controls. The primary outcome was time from AD diagnosis to hip fracture.

The investigators observed hip fractures in 6.9% of AD patients compared with 2.7% of controls. Patients with AD had a higher risk of hip fracture than did controls (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.8), independent of sex, age, or calendar period of diagnosis. Women aged 50 years or younger with AD had the highest risk of hip fracture (HR = 2.7). There was a positive association between hip fracture and undiagnosed AD (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4), with the highest risk in the year preceding diagnosis (OR = 2.8).

"A higher risk of fractures is likely to impair quality of life and merits prevention in AD patients," the authors write.
 

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