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Alzheimer’s Disease is an Important Risk Factor of Fractures: a Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies

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Abstract

The risk of fracture in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease had not been fully quantified. A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies was performed to estimate the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on risk of fractures. Pubmed and Embase were searched for eligible cohort studies assessing the association between Alzheimer’s disease and risk of fractures. The overall relative risks (RRs) with 95% CIs were calculated using a random-effects model to evaluate the association. Six cohort studies with a total of 137,986 participants were included into the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of a total of six studies showed that Alzheimer’s disease was significantly associated with two-fold increased risk of fractures (RR = 2.18, 95 % CI 1.64–2.90, P < 0.001; I 2 = 91.4 %). Meta-regression analysis showed that type of fractures was a source of heterogeneity (P = 0.003). Meta-analysis of five studies on hip fracture showed that Alzheimer’s disease was significantly associated with 2.5-fold increased risk of hip fracture (RR = 2.52, 95 % CI 2.26–2.81, P < 0.001; I 2 = 25.2 %). There was no risk of publication bias observed in the funnel plot. There is strong evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is a risk factor of hip fracture.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is supported by the General Program of National Natural Science Foudation of China: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) and professional social work intervention model for earthquake survivors of post disaster reconstruction: a follow-up survey of six earthquake hit areas in Lushan (71473117), and Research on the interaction between local government ecological management and the development of green community volunteer organization – A Study on the construction of green ecological city in Yangtze River Delta (71173099). It's also supported by the young scholars of China's Changjiang Scholars Programs and Dengfeng Talents Plan of Nanjing University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Ying Liang

  2. College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Lei Wang

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  1. Ying Liang
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  2. Lei Wang
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Correspondence to Ying Liang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Author’s Contributions

YL wrote the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis. WL participated in the design of the study and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Liang, Y., Wang, L. Alzheimer’s Disease is an Important Risk Factor of Fractures: a Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies. Mol Neurobiol 54, 3230–3235 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-016-9841-2

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