Risk factors for hip fracture.

Hip fractures are among the most important causes of ill health and death among elderly people. Of white North American women 50 years of age, 17.5 percent will have a hip fracture during their remaining lifetime,1 as will 6 percent of white men of similar age. These fractures will contribute substantially to the 2 million person-years of functional impairment and $45 billion in direct medical costs attributable to osteoporosis in the next 10 years.2 In this issue of the Journal, Cummings and colleagues report the results of a large prospective cohort study in which a wide range of risk factors . . .