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Doctors hope hip protectors will reduce the risk of fracture.(The Dallas Morning News)

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

| December 15, 2000 | Jacobson, Sherry | COPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

If football players wear helmets to protect their heads from injury and skate-boarders wear pads to protect their elbows and knees, why can't a frail elderly person wear something to prevent a broken hip?

A group of researchers in Finland not only posed that question, they conducted a study that offers proof that wearing external hip protectors can prevent as many as 80 percent of the hip fractures suffered by the elderly.

The New England Journal of Medicine, which published the study in its Nov. 23 edition, calls it "a breakthrough in fracture prevention." An estimated 300,000 Americans most of them elderly women break their hips each year.

"Hip fractures are one of the most devastating and costly problems faced by elderly people," says an editorial in the journal. "Hip protectors offer a powerful method for reducing the risk of hip fracture. Their use should be strongly encouraged" among people who suffer from osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease that reduces bone mass, causing posture changes and decreased mobility.

The focus on hip fractures has grown as the American…

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