According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, up to one-half of women age 50+ will experience a bone fracture during the remainder of their lifetime. This means a lot of women will fracture, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with the better-documented fracture risk factors. Over the years, researchers have tried to quantify how much any factor increases the risk of bone fracture.
Chart: Top 7 bone fracture risk factors
Look over the top 7 risk factors for bone fracture, ranked by risk ratio. This measure of “relative risk” represents the likelihood of a certain event happening in one group compared to the risk of the same event happening in another group.
| Risk factor | Risk ratio |
| Glucocorticoids (steroids) | 2.31 |
| Parental hip fracture | 2.27 |
| Low BMI (20 vs. 25) | 1.95 |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 1.95 |
| Prior fragility fracture | 1.85 |
| Current smoking | 1.84 |
| High alcohol intake | 1.68 |
Are you concerned about risk factors that may be present in your life? Begin by assessing your personal health and lifestyle factors with our free Bone Health Profile. As we at the Center for Better Bones like to say, “It is never too late to begin building and rebuilding bone strength.”
Take action today!
Reference:
Susan Ott, M.D. Website https://courses.washington.edu/bonephys/oprisk.html