Various factors that may indicate whether a person faces a higher likelihood of experiencing a bone fracture over the next two decades have been highlighted in a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, included 30,446 middle-aged women and men who were followed from the early/mid 1990s to 2016. A total of 8,240 participants (27 per cent) had at least one fracture during a median follow-up of 20.7 years. Older age, female sex, higher body mass index, a previous fracture, a family history of fracture after the age of 50 years, low leisure-time physical activity, heavy work, living alone, smoking, and no or high alcohol consumption were factors independently associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing a fracture. "Our results emphasise the importance of these factors in public health initiatives for fracture prevention," the authors wrote.