Vertebral fracture and cause-specific mortality: a prospective population study of 3,210 men and 3,730 women with 30 years of follow-up.

Introduction: Vertebral fractures predict mortality, but little is known about their associations with the causes of death. We studied vertebral fractures for prediction of cause-specific mortality.

Material And Methods: A nationally representative sample of 3,210 men and 3,730 women participated Mini-Finland health survey in 1978-1980. Vertebral fractures at the Th1-Th12 levels were identified from chest radiographs at baseline. Cox's proportional hazard model was used to estimate the strength of association between vertebral fracture and mortality.

Results: The relative risk (95% confidence interval) of death from natural causes was 1.49 (0.89-2.48) in men and 0.89 (0.60-1.31) in women with vertebral fractures (adjusted for age, body mass index, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, educational level, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and self-rated general health). Among women the adjusted relative risk of an injury death was 8.51 (3.48-20.77), whereas none of the men with vertebral fracture died due to an injury.

Conclusion: The patterns of mortality predicted by fracture in the thoracic spine differ between men and women.