TY - JOUR T1 - The intersectional role of social stress in fracture risk: results from the Women’s Health Initiative JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 1208 LP - 1214 DO - 10.1136/jech-2020-216354 VL - 75 IS - 12 AU - Shawna Follis AU - Yann C Klimentidis AU - Jennifer Bea AU - Chengcheng Hu AU - David Garcia AU - Jean Wactawski-Wende AU - Lindsay Kohler AU - Aladdin H Shadyab AU - Melissa Flores AU - Hilary A Tindle AU - Zhao Chen Y1 - 2021/12/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/75/12/1208.abstract N2 - Background The biological consequences of stress from the social environment pattern health outcomes. This study investigated whether social stress is prospectively associated with fracture incidence among racially and ethnically diverse, postmenopausal women.Methods Data from 160 709 postmenopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative was analysed using Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine prospective associations of social stress with time to total and hip fracture incidence. Self-reported questionnaires measuring social strain, social functioning and social support were used to assess social stress.Results Age and race/ethnicity modified associations between social stress and total and hip fractures. HRs for the associations between higher social support (indicating lower social stress) and total fractures among those age 50–59 years were 0.92 (95% CI: 0.90 to 0.94); HR=0.94 (95% CI: 0.93 to 0.95) for those age 60–69 years and HR=0.96 (95% CI: 0.95 to 0.98) for those age 70–79 years. Higher social strain was associated with greater hip fracture incidence among Native American women (HR=1.84, 95% CI: 1.10 to 3.10), Asian women (HR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.86) and white women (HR=1.04, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.08).Conclusion Identifying population patterns of fracture incidence as biological expressions of social environments reveals how race/ethnic specific social environmental factors influence disparities in fractures.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data may be obtained from the Women’s Health Initiative (www.whi.org) and are not publicly available. ER -