Skip Navigation



American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on February 25, 2008
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwm384
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
167/8/1005    most recent
kwm384v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Søgaard, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Holme, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Søgaard, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Holme, I.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2008. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Original Contribution

Weight Cycling and Risk of Forearm Fractures: A 28-Year Follow-up of Men in the Oslo Study

Anne Johanne Søgaard1,2, Haakon E. Meyer1,2, Serena Tonstad3, Lise Lund Håheim4 and Ingar Holme5

1 Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
2 Institute of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
3 Department of Preventive Cardiology, Centre of Preventive Medicine, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
4 Department of Quality Measurement and Patient Safety, Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, Oslo, Norway
5 Department of Epidemiology and Health Surveillance, Centre of Preventive Medicine, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Correspondence to Prof. Anne Johanne Søgaard, Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404, N-0403 Oslo, Norway (e-mail: anne.johanne.sogaard{at}fhi.no).

Received for publication July 16, 2007. Accepted for publication December 7, 2007.

Weight cycling may lead to fractures in non-weight-bearing bone. The authors investigated the association between self-reported episodes of weight loss and forearm fracture in a cohort of elderly Norwegian men (n = 4,601; mean age = 71.6 years). Men initially examined in 1972–1973 as part of the population-based Oslo Study were reexamined in 2000. Weight and height were measured both times; histories of weight cycling (amount and frequency) and fracture and information on covariates were elicited by questionnaire. Irrespective of amount of weight loss, 35–43% of men reporting four or more weight loss episodes at ages 25–50 years had experienced a forearm fracture, as compared with 17–18% of men without weight loss episodes. For weight loss episodes that had occurred after age 50 years, associations were weaker. In an analysis limited to men whose last fracture had occurred after the weight loss episodes, the adjusted odds ratio for forearm fracture was 2.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.10, 7.64) for four or more weight loss episodes versus none. These findings suggest that weight cycling may predict forearm fracture in elderly men and indicate that the potentially harmful effects of weight cycling are related to the number of episodes occurring at ages 25–50 years.

body weight changes; follow-up studies; fractures, bone; osteoporosis; radius fractures; weight gain; weight loss


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.