LACTOSE-INTOLERANCE ASSOCIATED WITH FRACTURES OF WEIGHT-BEARING BONESIN FINNISH WOMEN AGED 38-57 YEARS

Lactose intolerance (LI) often results in decreased calcium intake, To test if long-term low intake of calcium affects bone strength, we exa mined fracture risks related to LI in women aged 38-57 gears, The 11,6 19 Finnish women aged 47-56 years who responded to the baseline postal inquiry of the Kuopio Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention study i n 1989 formed the study population, In all, 896 women reported LI and 1299 women reported a fracture in 1980-1989. Current intake of dairy c alcium was lower in women with LI (570 mg/d) than in the other women ( 850 mg/d) (p < 0.0001), The fracture risk in general was slightly elev ated in women with LI compared with the other women, with an odds rati o (OR) (95% CI) of 1.33 (1.09-1.62), However, the fractures at the thr ee most common sites (wrist, ankle, and rib) were not related to LI, I n contrast, fractures at the tibia and metatarsal were strongly relate d to LI with ORs of 3.31 (1.51-7.24) and 2.84 (1.47-5.50), respectivel y;, The adjusted OR for nonankle lower body fractures combined was 2.1 5 (1.53-3.04), whereas that for all upper body fractures combined was 1.15 (0.88-1.54). The 10 women with LI and a tibial or metatarsal frac ture showed a 19% lower Femoral BMD than all the other women in the de nsitometry subsample of 3222 women (p < 0.001). Long-term premenopausa l calcium deficiency differentially affects bones with weight-bearing nonankle bones being at the greatest risk of suffering reduced strengt h, (Bone 21: 473-477; 1997) (C) 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc. All righ ts reserved.