Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37188349›Full record

ArticleeLife2023

'Skeletal Age' for mapping the impact of fracture on mortality.

Thach Tran, Thao Ho-Le, Dana Bliuc, Bo Abrahamsen, Louise Hansen, Peter Vestergaard, Jacqueline R Center, Tuan V Nguyen

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
2.4field-weighted citation impact, top 12% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Burden of accumulating fragility fractures on health service usage and costs among post-menopausal women.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2026
    Article
  4. From Bone Health to Lifespan: Pleiotropic Effects of Antiresorptive Agents.Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea) · 2025
    Review
  5. Review
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.

Thach TranSchool of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-6454-124X
Thao Ho-LeSchool of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Dana BliucGarvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia.
Bo AbrahamsenDepartment of Medicine, Holbæk Hospital, Holbæk, Denmark.
Louise HansenKontraktenheden, North Denmark Region, Denmark, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0002-4400-2732
Peter VestergaardDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Jacqueline R CenterGarvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-5278-4527
Tuan V NguyenSchool of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-3246-6281
University of Technology Sydney · AUAalborg University Hospital · DKGarvan Institute of Medical Research · AUNorth Denmark Region · DKUniversity of Southern Denmark · DK

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Fragility fracture is associated with an increased risk of mortality, but mortality is not part of doctor-patient communication. Here, we introduce a new concept called 'Skeletal Age' as the age of an individual's skeleton resulting from a fragility fracture to convey the combined risk of fracture and fracture-associated mortality for an individual. Methods: We used the Danish National Hospital Discharge Register which includes the whole-country data of 1,667,339 adults in Denmark born on or before January 1, 1950, who were followed up to December 31, 2016 for incident low-trauma fracture and mortality. Skeletal age is defined as the sum of chronological age and the number of years of life lost (YLL) associated with a fracture. Cox's proportional hazards model was employed to determine the hazard of mortality associated with a specific fracture for a given risk profile, and the hazard was then transformed into YLL using the Gompertz law of mortality. Results: During the median follow-up period of 16 years, there had been 307,870 fractures and 122,744 post-fracture deaths. A fracture was associated with between 1 and 7 years of life lost, with the loss being greater in men than women. Hip fractures incurred the greatest loss of life years. For instance, a 60-year-old individual with a hip fracture is estimated to have a skeletal age of 66 for men and 65 for women. Skeletal Age was estimated for each age and fracture site stratified by gender. Conclusions: We propose 'Skeletal Age' as a new metric to assess the impact of a fragility fracture on an individual's life expectancy. This approach will enhance doctor-patient risk communication about the risks associated with osteoporosis. Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia and Amgen Competitive Grant Program 2019.

Indexed as

Age Determination by SkeletonFractures, BoneLife ExpectancyAdultAgedDenmarkFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedOsteoporosisOsteoporotic FracturesProportional Hazards Modelsepidemiologyfragility fractureglobal healthhumanmortalityrisk communicationskeletal age

Identifiers

PMID37188349
PMCPMC10188111
OpenAlexW4376641811

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.