Genetic factors and osteoporotic fractures in elderly people: prospective 25 year follow up of a nationwide cohort of elderly Finnish twins.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether genetic factors partly explain variation in risk of osteoporotic fracture, the true end point of the osteoporosis problem.

Design

Prospective 25 year follow up of a nationwide cohort of elderly Finnish twins.

Setting

The Finnish twin cohort and the national hospital discharge register, covering the entire 5 million population of Finland.

Subjects

All same sex twin pairs born before 1946. The cohort contained 2308 monozygotic and 5241 dizygotic twin pairs (15 098 people) at the beginning of follow up. Main: outcome measure The number and concordance of osteoporotic fractures in the twin pairs, 1972-96.

Results

786 cohort members sustained an osteoporotic fracture. In women, the pairwise concordance rate for fracture (that is

SUBMITTER: Kannus P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC28279 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature