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Former Male Elite Athletes Have Lower Incidence of Fragility Fractures than Expected.

Tveit, Magnus LU ; Rosengren, Björn LU ; Nyquist, Fredrik LU ; Nilsson, Jan-Åke LU and Karlsson, Magnus LU (2013) In Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 45(3). p.405-410
Abstract
PURPOSE: Physical activity during growth is associated with high peak bone mass and may, as a result, prevent osteoporosis later in life. It is therefore possible that athletic activity during youth could lower the risk of fragility fractures in old age. Though, this is currently unclear and, based on evaluations of surrogate skeletal end point variables in former athletes, we hypothesized that this is not the case. METHODS: In a retrospective matched controlled cohort study design, we calculated the lifetime incidence of fractures from the results of a mailed questionnaire sent to 709 former male elite athletes with a mean age of 69 years (range 50-93), who had given up regular sports activity a mean 34 years (range 1-63) ago, and to 1368... (More)
PURPOSE: Physical activity during growth is associated with high peak bone mass and may, as a result, prevent osteoporosis later in life. It is therefore possible that athletic activity during youth could lower the risk of fragility fractures in old age. Though, this is currently unclear and, based on evaluations of surrogate skeletal end point variables in former athletes, we hypothesized that this is not the case. METHODS: In a retrospective matched controlled cohort study design, we calculated the lifetime incidence of fractures from the results of a mailed questionnaire sent to 709 former male elite athletes with a mean age of 69 years (range 50-93), who had given up regular sports activity a mean 34 years (range 1-63) ago, and to 1368 matched controls. Estimates of time to first fracture were done by Poisson regression, and for analyses of covariance Cox Regression were used. Data are presented as rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). RESULTS: After retirement from sports, the former athletes had a RR of 0.70 (0.52, 0.93) for any fracture, a RR of 0.50 (0.27, 0.89) for any fragility fracture, and a RR of 0.29 (0.09, 0.74) for distal radius fractures. When adjusting for occupation, smoking, alcohol, disease, and medication the hazard ratio (HR) of any fracture after active career was 0.73 (95% CI 0.54, 0.99) and the HR of any fragility fracture after age 50 was 0.63 (95% CI 0.35, 1.16). CONCLUSION: Elite sports during adolescence are in men associated with a lower fracture risk after career end. The former athletes were overall healthier which may have influenced the results. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
volume
45
issue
3
pages
405 - 410
publisher
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
external identifiers
  • wos:000315268700001
  • pmid:23034643
  • scopus:84875209942
  • pmid:23034643
ISSN
1530-0315
DOI
10.1249/MSS.0b013e318274fdf3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
016bfb73-93a1-4710-b1d6-c066cd08c0b9 (old id 3161148)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23034643?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:59:27
date last changed
2022-01-25 18:43:37
@article{016bfb73-93a1-4710-b1d6-c066cd08c0b9,
  abstract     = {{PURPOSE: Physical activity during growth is associated with high peak bone mass and may, as a result, prevent osteoporosis later in life. It is therefore possible that athletic activity during youth could lower the risk of fragility fractures in old age. Though, this is currently unclear and, based on evaluations of surrogate skeletal end point variables in former athletes, we hypothesized that this is not the case. METHODS: In a retrospective matched controlled cohort study design, we calculated the lifetime incidence of fractures from the results of a mailed questionnaire sent to 709 former male elite athletes with a mean age of 69 years (range 50-93), who had given up regular sports activity a mean 34 years (range 1-63) ago, and to 1368 matched controls. Estimates of time to first fracture were done by Poisson regression, and for analyses of covariance Cox Regression were used. Data are presented as rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). RESULTS: After retirement from sports, the former athletes had a RR of 0.70 (0.52, 0.93) for any fracture, a RR of 0.50 (0.27, 0.89) for any fragility fracture, and a RR of 0.29 (0.09, 0.74) for distal radius fractures. When adjusting for occupation, smoking, alcohol, disease, and medication the hazard ratio (HR) of any fracture after active career was 0.73 (95% CI 0.54, 0.99) and the HR of any fragility fracture after age 50 was 0.63 (95% CI 0.35, 1.16). CONCLUSION: Elite sports during adolescence are in men associated with a lower fracture risk after career end. The former athletes were overall healthier which may have influenced the results.}},
  author       = {{Tveit, Magnus and Rosengren, Björn and Nyquist, Fredrik and Nilsson, Jan-Åke and Karlsson, Magnus}},
  issn         = {{1530-0315}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{405--410}},
  publisher    = {{Lippincott Williams & Wilkins}},
  series       = {{Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise}},
  title        = {{Former Male Elite Athletes Have Lower Incidence of Fragility Fractures than Expected.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e318274fdf3}},
  doi          = {{10.1249/MSS.0b013e318274fdf3}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}