Does Childhood Fracture Beget Future Fracture?

Fractures are common among children. However, there are knowledge gaps regarding risk factors for pediatric fracture and whether it confers an increased risk for future fracture.

To address these gaps, investigators retrospectively assessed recurrent fracture risk in approximately 2.5 million healthy children aged 0 to 15 years living in Ontario, Canada. The study exposure was occurrence of a fracture during a baseline year of April 2003 through March 2004, and the outcome was any fracture during the subsequent 7 years.

In all, 43,154 children sustained a fracture during the baseline year (incidence rate, 17.5 fractures/1000 child-years). These children had a 60% elevated rate of future fracture (incidence rate ratio: 1.60; 95% confidence int…