Context: Vasomotor symptoms (VMS) are common. Whether VMS are associated with fracture incidence or bone mineral density (BMD) levels is unknown. Objective: This study aimed to examine associations of baseline VMS with fracture incidence and BMD. Design: This was a prospective observational study with mean (SD) followup of 8.2 (1.7) years (1993-2005). Setting: Forty United States clinical centers. Participants: We examined data from Women's Health Initiative Clinical Trial participants (n = 23 573) age 50-79 years not using menopausal hormone therapy, and 4,867 participants of the BMD sub-study. Interventions: None. Main Outcome Measures: We measured baseline VMS, incident adjudicated fractures, and BMD (baseline, annual visits 1, 3, 6, and 9). Results: After adjustment for baseline age, body mass index, race/ethnicity, smoking, and education, the hazard ratio for hip fracture among women with baseline moderate/severe VMS (vs no VMS) was 1.78 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-2.64; P = .01). There was no association between VMS and vertebral fracture. VMS severity was inversely associated with BMD during followup (P = .004 for femoral neck, P = .045 for lumbar spine). In repeated measures models, compared with women who reported no VMS, women with moderate/severe VMS had 0.015 g/cm(2) lower femoral neck BMD (95% CI, -0.025--0.005) and 0.016 g/cm(2) lower lumbar spine BMD (95% CI, -0.032--0.004). Conclusions: Women with moderate/severe VMS have lower BMD and increased hip fracture rates. Elucidation of the biological mechanisms underlying these associations may inform the design of preventive strategies for at-risk women prior to occurrence of fracture.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 115. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 September 2025.
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#462,641
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#8
of 277 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,492,055 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 21,071 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 277 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
