BACKGROUND

Although a number of studies have examined the association between alcohol intake and hip fractures, few have considered specific alcoholic beverages separately.

OBJECTIVES

We prospectively assessed total alcohol and specific alcoholic beverage consumption and risk of hip fractures in US men and women.

METHODS

Health, lifestyle information, and hip fractures were self-reported on biennial questionnaires between 1980 and 2014 in 75,180 postmenopausal women from the Nurses' Health Study, and between 1986 and 2014 in 38,398 men aged ≥50 y from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Diet was assessed approximately every 4 y with a semiquantitative FFQ. RRs were computed for hip fracture using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS

We ascertained 2360 incident low trauma hip fractures in women and 709 in men. Among women, RRs for low trauma hip fractures compared with nondrinkers were 0.89 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.99) for an average daily consumption of <5.0 g, 0.81 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.94) for 5.0 to <10.0 g, 0.83 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.96) for 10.0 to <20.0 g, and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.10) for ≥20.0 g. Among men, risk declined linearly with higher alcohol consumption (P-trend = 0.002). Multivariable RR compared with nondrinkers was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.59, 1.01), 0.69 (0.49, 0.96), and 0.67 (0.48, 0.95) for an average intake of 10 g/d to <20 g/d, 20 g/d to <30 g/d, and 30.0 g/d or more, respectively. In women, the alcoholic beverage most significantly associated with hip fracture risk was red wine (RR per serving = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.79). In men, there was no clear association with specific alcoholic beverages.

CONCLUSION

In these 2 US cohorts, low to moderate alcohol consumption, when compared with no consumption, was associated with a lower risk of hip fractures, particularly with red wine consumption among women.