Dietary Animal Fat Intake,Calcium Intake,and Bone Fractures in Women 50 Years and Older

This study was undertaken to evaluate the association among dietary fat intake, calcium intake, and bone fractures in women 50 years of age and older. Sixty-one women 50 years and older provided dietary data and medical histories using a self-administered questionnaire. Seventy-one percent had natural menopause, 26% had surgical menopause, and 3% (both age 52 years) were premenopausal. The means and standard deviations of total calcium intake among women with and without fractures at age 40 or later were, respectively, 1301 ± 765 mg/day and 1313 ± 682 mg/day; of calcium supplements 258 ± 467 mg/day and 497 ± 517 mg/day; of animal fat intake 42.28 ± 20.52 g/day vs 31.10 ± 17.67 g/day (p = 0.033). Calcium intake in the form of calcium supplements was protective against bone fractures that occurred at age 40 and later. Increased animal fat intake was a risk factor. For those who reported currently taking 500 mg/day or more of calcium supplements compared with less than 500 mg/day, the odds ratio (OR) is 0.30, 95% confidence limits (CL) (0.010, 0.92), p = 0.035. Nine women (9/35) on calcium supplements who reported fractures at 40 or older began calcium supplementation after the fracture. None of the other 26 women taking calcium supplements reported fractures at 40 or older. Among those whose daily dietary intake of animal fat was greater than 25 g/day vs those with 25 g/day or less, OR = 5.00, 95% CL (1.33, 18.82), p = 0.017. The data show that calcium supplements are protective against the risk of bone fractures. To our knowledge, this is the first time that quantitative estimates of daily dietary animal fat intake have been reported to be associated with bone fractures.