This 16-year prospective cohort study from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study followed 2245 women and 1760 men aged 60+ in Australia to quantify both the absolute and relative risk of sustaining a second low-trauma fracture after an initial one — with concurrent data in both sexes to enable direct comparison.
When you see any low-trauma fracture in a patient over 60 — regardless of location, severity, or sex — treat it as a sentinel event: absolute refracture risk is as high as the initial fracture risk of a woman a decade older, and nearly half of these patients will fracture again within 10 years.
Don't wait: the refracture peak is in the first 2–5 years, so osteoporosis workup and preventive therapy must start immediately, and this applies equally to men, who are undertreated at a rate of less than 10%.
This 16-year prospective cohort study from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study followed 2245 women and 1760 men aged 60+ in Australia to quantify both the absolute and relative risk of sustaining a second low-trauma fracture after an initial one — with concurrent data in both sexes to enable direct comparison.
When you see any low-trauma fracture in a patient over 60 — regardless of location, severity, or sex — treat it as a sentinel event: absolute refracture risk is as high as the initial fracture risk of a woman a decade older, and nearly half of these patients will fracture again within 10 years.
Don't wait: the refracture peak is in the first 2–5 years, so osteoporosis workup and preventive therapy must start immediately, and this applies equally to men, who are undertreated at a rate of less than 10%.