Internal Medicine · 2 h ago
Danish cohort links hospitalisation with short-term fracture risk
A national matched cohort study using Danish registry data examined subsequent major osteoporotic fractures (MOFs) in adults aged 46 years or older. Hospitalisation was associated with higher MOF risk, most strongly soon after discharge, with sex differences and dose-response patterns by hospitalisation duration and frequency.
- Fracture risk was highest soon after discharge.
- Fourteen-day adjusted MOF hazard ratio was 1.77.
- Longer and more frequent admissions showed dose-response associations.
- Women and men showed different time-dependent risk patterns.
Researchers used Danish registry data to compare people hospitalised during 2023 with matched controls who had not been hospitalised before the corresponding index date. The analysis included adults aged 46 years or older, matched 1:1 on age, sex and comorbidity. Follow-up began the day after the last hospital discharge in 2023; the primary outcome was a major osteoporotic fracture of the hip, clinical vertebra, humerus or forearm. Analyses accounted for competing mortality and confounders.
In fully adjusted analyses, hospitalisation was associated with higher MOF risk at 14 days (hazard ratio [HR] 1.77, 95% CI 1.47–2.14) and 30 days (HR 1.28, 1.12–1.47). Estimates were smaller at one year (HR 1.03) and over complete follow-up (HR 1.10). Women had higher MOF rates overall; at 90 days, their estimated risk temporarily showed no significant increase (HR 0.93, 0.84–1.03), unlike the pattern in men. Longer and more frequent hospitalisations were also associated with higher risk.
The findings support an association, not proof that hospitalisation causes fractures. The study used observational registry data, and the supplied report does not state cohort size. Its results may help identify a period of elevated fracture risk after discharge, but do not establish a specific preventive intervention or change in care.
In practice
This Danish registry cohort suggests that adults aged 46 years or older have an increased rate of major osteoporotic fracture after hospitalisation, with the greatest relative association in the first weeks after discharge. The association varied by sex and increased with hospitalisation duration and frequency. These findings may support attention to fracture risk during post-discharge assessment, but the study is observational and does not test a prevention strategy; it does not establish that changing clinical practice reduces fractures.
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Osteoporosis International: Hospitalisation and subsequent fracture risk—a national matched cohort study in Denmark ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.