RISK-FACTORS FOR WRIST FRACTURE - EFFECT OF AGE, CIGARETTES, ALCOHOL,BODY HEIGHT, RELATIVE WEIGHT, AND HANDEDNESS ON THE RISK FOR DISTAL FOREARM FRACTURES IN MEN

Fractures of the distal forearm (wrist) are among the most common of a ll fractures. While evidence exists concerning risk factors for wrist fracture among women, little is known about risk factors among men. Th is study examines the relation of lifestyle characteristics (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, relative weight) as well as body height and handedness to the risk for fracture in a male population that has been followed up for 6 years. The 51,529 men, who were between the ag es of 40 and 75 years in 1986, were participants in the Health Profess ionals Follow-up Study, a national prospective cohort study. In 271,55 2 person-years of follow-up, 271 respondents reported a wrist fracture . The risk for wrist fracture in this population did not vary with age . Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, body height, and relative we ight also were not related to risk for wrist fracture. Handedness, whi ch was divided into four mutually exclusive categories (right-handed, left-handed, forced to change, and ambidextrous), was significantly as sociated with wrist fracture. Left-handers had a multivariate relative risk for wrist fracture 1.56 times that of right-handers (95% confide nce interval 1.02-2.37), and men who reported they had been forced to change from left-handed to right-handed had a multivariate relative ri sk 2.47 times greater than right-handers (95 percent confidence interv al 1.21-5.04).