Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2012:2012:872173.
doi: 10.1100/2012/872173. Epub 2012 May 2.

Alzheimer's disease and risk of hip fracture: a meta-analysis study

Yan Zhao  1 , Liang Shen, Hong-Fang Ji
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Alzheimer's disease and risk of hip fracture: a meta-analysis study

Yan Zhao et al. ScientificWorldJournal. 2012.

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly population. Growing evidence supports that AD patients are at high risk for hip fracture, but the issue remains questionable. The purpose of the present study is to perform a meta-analysis to explore the association between AD and risk of hip fracture. Considering that bone mineral density (BMD) acts as a strong predictor of bone fracture, we also studied the hip BMD in AD patients.

Methods: We searched all publications in Medline, SciVerse Scopus, and Cochrane Library published up to January 2012 about the association between AD and hip fracture or hip BMD.

Results: There are 9 studies included in the meta-analysis. The results indicate that AD patients are at higher risk for hip fracture (OR and 95% CI fixed: ES = 2.58, 95% CI = [2.03, 3.14]; dichotomous data: summary OR = 1.80, 95% CI = [1.54, 2.11]) than healthy controls. Further meta-analysis showed that AD patients have a lower hip BMD (summary SMD = -1.12, 95% CI = [-1.34, -0.90]) than healthy controls.

Conclusions: It was found that in comparison with healthy controls AD patients are at higher risk for hip fracture and have lower hip BMD.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Selection of studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pooled estimate of ES and 95% CI of AD and hip fracture (used OR and 95% CI fixed). ES is represented by squares, whose sizes are proportional to the sample size of the relative study. The whiskers represent the 95% CI. The diamond represents the pooled estimate based on the random effects model, with the centre representing the point estimate and the width the associated 95% CI.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pooled estimate of OR and 95% CI of AD and hip fracture (used dichotomous data). OR is represented by squares, whose sizes are proportional to the sample size of the relative study. The whiskers represent the 95% CI. The diamond represents the pooled estimate based on the random effects model, with the centre representing the point estimate and the width the associated 95% CI.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Pooled estimate of SMD and 95% CI of AD and hip BMD (mmAl). SMD is represented by squares, whose sizes are proportional to the sample size of the relative study. The whiskers represent the 95% CI. The diamond represents the pooled estimate based on the random effects model, with the centre representing the point estimate and the width the associated 95% CI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Reiman EM, McKhann GM, Albert MS, Sperling RA, Petersen RC, Blacker D. Alzheimer's disease: implications of the updated diagnostic and research criteria. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2011;72(9):1190–1196. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ballard C, Gauthier S, Corbett A, Brayne C, Aarsland D, Jones E. Alzheimer's disease. The Lancet. 2011;377(9770):1019–1031. - PubMed
    1. Hussain. A, Barer D. Fracture risk in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 1995;43(4):p. 454. - PubMed
    1. Buchner DM, Larson EB. Falls and fractures in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1987;257(11):1492–1495. - PubMed
    1. Johnell O, Gullberg B, Allander E, et al. The apparent incidence of hip fracture in Europe: a study of national register sources. Osteoporosis International. 1992;2(6):298–302. - PubMed

Publication types