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Parity, lactation and hip fracture

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Abstract

The relationship between parity, lactation and the occurrence of hip fracture was investigated in a case-control study of white women. The cases were patients (n=174) aged 45 years and over with a radiologically confirmed first hip fracture sampled from among admissions to 30 hospitals in New York and Philadelphia between September 1987 and July 1989. Controls (n=174) were selected from general surgical and orthopedic services during the same time period and were frequency-matched to cases by age and hospital. Ever having a live birth was associated with reduced odds of hip fracture, controlling for age and hospital of recruitment (odds ratio =0.65; 95% confidence interval =0.41–1.04). When body mass index was also controlled, each birth was associated on average with a 9% reduction in the odds of hip fracture (odds ratio =0.92 [0.78–1.08]), although the trend was not statistically significant. After adjusting for number of births, lactation was not associated with hip fracture (adjusted odds ratio for 12 months of lactation or less =0.80 [0.42–1.55]; adjusted odds ratio for more than 12 months =1.08 [0.45–2.60]).

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Hoffman, S., Grisso, J.A., Kelsey, J.L. et al. Parity, lactation and hip fracture. Osteoporosis Int 3, 171–176 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01623672

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