Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Hip Fracture Incidence in Older Men and Women: The CHANCES Project.

The role of fruit and vegetable intake in relation to fracture prevention during adulthood and beyond is not adequately understood. We investigated the potential association between fruit and vegetable intake and hip fracture incidence in a large sample of elderly from Europe and United States. A total of 142,018 individuals (among which 116,509 women), aged ≥60 years old, from five cohorts, were followed-up prospectively for 1,911,482 person-years accumulating 5,552 hip fractures. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed by validated, cohort-specific, food-frequency questionnaires. Ηip fractures were ascertained through national patient registers or telephone interviews/questionnaires. Adjusted hazard ratios (HR) derived by Cox proportional-hazards regression were estimated for each cohort and subsequently pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Intake of ≤ 1 servings/day of fruit and vegetables combined was associated with 39% higher hip fracture risk [pooled adjusted HR:1.39, 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs): 1.20, 1.58] in comparison to moderate intake (>3 and ≤5 servings/day) (pfor heterogeneity  = 0.505), whereas higher intakes (>5 servings/day) were not associated with lower risk in comparison to the same reference. Associations were more evident among women. We concluded that a daily intake of one or less servings of fruits and vegetables was associated with increased hip fracture risk in relation to moderate daily intakes. Older adults with such low fruit and vegetable consumption may benefit from raising their intakes to moderate amounts in order to reduce their hip fracture risk.