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Moderate Exercise Can
Prevent Broken Hip
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - Moderate levels of leisure-time physical
activity can help protect against a hip fracture, according to
a report in the July issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
On the flip side, a person's risk for hip fracture seems to increase
if he or she became less active as they age.
In the study,
Dr. Susanne Hoidrup from Glostrup University Hospital, Glostrup,
Denmark, and colleagues looked at data from three studies, which
altogether included 13,183 women and 17,045 men, ages 20 to 93.
In total, 1,121 people experienced a hip fracture.
About 55%
of the people in the study engaged in moderate physical activity
for two to four hours per day. After adjustment for other factors,
the researchers found that the active women's risk of hip fracture
was 28% less than that of sedentary women. Active men had a 25%
lower risk of breaking their hip than sedentary men.
Being in the
most physically active category did not further reduce the risk
for fracture. The risk was only modestly affected after adjustment
for poor health.
People who
had been active but became sedentary had about twice the risk
of hip fracture of those who stayed active. But increasing physical
activity did not appear to give any added protection against fractures.
``Recommendation
of regular physical activity and maintenance of physical activity
during the aging process should become an essential part of strategies
aimed at controlling the alarming increase in hip fractures worldwide,''
Hoidrup and colleagues conclude.
SOURCE:
American Journal of Epidemiology 2001;154:60-68.
Reference
Source 89
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