How common are wrist fractures?

Recently, a 54-year old client of mine became entangled in her dog’s leash and fell down which caused a wrist fracture. Not having seen the fall, I could not tell if this was a low-trauma, osteoporotic wrist fracture, or a justifiable, “anyone would have fractured” break due to a high-impact fall. In either case, she wanted me to help her understand how common it was for a woman of her age to break a wrist. Here’s what I found.

Recent statistical estimations for the incidence of wrist fracture among women in the US can be found in the data from the National Osteoporosis Risk Assessment (NORA). The NORA study involved three years of observing 170,000 women ages 50-99. This large body of data found that over the three years 4.2 out of 1,000 women ages 50-59 suffered a fracture. Thus, each year some 1.4% of all women in her age group experienced a wrist fracture. Interestingly enough, among all age groups, wrist fractures were the most common type of fracture.

So, what’s the Better Bones perspective on this? As wrist fractures are quite uncommon for women in their 50s, we think that such a fracture warrants attention and serious consideration. In this case, I sat down with my client and reviewed her implementation of the full Better Bones Program, making sure we were doing everything possible to build her bone strength. She, in particular, needed to improve her pH balance and increase her strength training.

Reference: Siris, E.S., et al. 2006. The effect of age and bone mineral density on the absolute, excess, and relative risk of fracture in postmenopausal women aged 50-99: Results from the National Osteoporosis Risk Assessment (NORA). Osteoporos Int, 17, 565-574.