High-trauma fractures can repeat

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Older adults with high-trauma fractures -- such as from a car crash -- should be checked for osteoporosis, U.S. researchers say.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, linked high-trauma fractures -- fractures with low bone mineral density, or BMD -- and an increased risk of a subsequent fracture.

Dawn C. Mackey, of the San Francisco Coordinating Center, and colleagues analyzed data from two U.S. studies of adults 65 years or older from geographically diverse areas: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, in which 8,022 women from 1988 to 2006 were tracked; and the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study, which tracked 5,995 men from 2000 to 2007.

The researchers found low BMD associated with an increased risk of both high- and low-trauma fracture. After adjusting for age, and total hip BMD decreased , the risk of high-trauma fracture increased in both women and men.