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| | | ![]() Smoking Is Bad For Your Hips! LONDON, ENGLAND -- October 3, 1997 -- M.R. Law and A. K. Hackshaw report one in eight hip fractures in women is attributable to smoking, according to their report in this week's British Medical Journal. In pre-menopausal women bone density was similar in smokers and non-smokers. Post-menopausal bone loss was greater in current smokers than non-smokers, bone density diminishing by about an additional 2 percent for every 10 year increase in age, with a difference of six percent at age 80. In current smokers relative to non-smokers the risk of hip fracture was similar at age 50 but greater thereafter by an estimated 17 percent at age 60, 41percent at 70, 71percent at 80, and 108 percent at 90. These estimates of relative risk by age, derived directly from a regression analysis of the studies of smoking and hip fracture, were close to estimates using the difference in bone density between smokers and non-smokers and the association between bone density and risk of hip fracture. The estimated cumulative risk of hip fracture in women in England was 19 percent in smokers and 12 percent in non-smokers to age 85, 37 percent and 22 percent to age 90. Among all women, one hip fracture in eight is attributable to smoking. Limited data in men suggest a similar proportionate effect of smoking as in women. The association was not explained by smokers being thinner, younger at menopause and exercising less nor by actions of smoking on estrogen, but smoking may have a direct action on bone.
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