Association of Alcohol Intake and Fracture Risk in Elderly Varied by Affected Bones: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies investigating association of alcohol intake and fracture risk in elderly yielded conflicting results. We first examined the association between alcohol intake and total fracture risk in elderly subjects and further analyzed whether the association varied by fracture locations. METHODS: This is a nationwide population-based cohort study which included all people aged 66 (n=1,431,539) receiving the National Screening Program during 2009–2014. Time-to-event were defined as duration from study recruitment, the day they received health screening, to the occurrence of fracture. RESULTS: Total fracture was significantly lower in mild drinkers [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR)=0.952; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) =0.931–0.973] and higher in heavy drinkers (aHR=1.246; 95% CI=1.201–1.294) than non-drinkers. Risk pattern of alcohol consumption and fracture differed according to affected bones. Similar J-shaped trends were observed for vertebra fractures, but risk of limb fracture showed a linear relationship with alcohol intake. For hip fracture, risk decrement was more pronounced in mild and moderate drinkers, and significant increment was noted only in very severe drinkers [≥60 g/day; (aHR)=1.446; 1.162–1.801]. CONCLUSION: Light to moderate drinking generally lowered risk of fractures, but association between alcohol and fracture risk varied depending on the affected bone lesions.