Prior fragility fracture and risk of incident ischaemic cardiovascular events: results from UK Biobank.

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the relationship between prior fracture and risk of incident ischaemic cardiovascular events in a UK population-based cohort. UK Biobank is a large prospective cohort comprising 502,637 men and women aged 40-69years, with detailed baseline assessment. History of fracture was self-reported, and details of hospital admissions for ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (ICD-10:I20-I25) were obtained through linkage to UK Hospital Episode Statistics. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the prospective relationships between prior fracture and hospital admission for men and women, controlling for age, BMI, smoking, alcohol, educational level, physical activity, systolic blood pressure, calcium and vitamin D use, ankle spacing-width, heel BUA and HRT use (women). Amongst men, a fragility fracture (hip, spine, wrist or arm fracture resulting from a simple fall) within the previous 5years was associated with a 35% increased risk of IHD admission (fully adjusted HR 1.35; 95%CI 1.00, 1.82; p = 0.047), with the relationship predominantly driven by wrist fractures. Associations with hospitalisation for angina in men were similar in age-adjusted models [HR1.54; 95%CI: 1.03, 2.30), p = 0.037], but did not remain statistical significant after full adjustment [HR 1.64; 95%CI: 0.88, 3.07); p = 0.121]. HRs for admission with angina were lower in women, and neither age- nor fully adjusted relationships attained statistical significance. Prior fragility fracture is an independent risk factor for incident ischaemic cardiovascular events in men. Further work may clarify whether this association is causal or represents shared risk factors, but these findings are likely to be of value in risk assessment of both osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.