Broken bones affect one in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 years and cost the NHS around £5 billion annually. The long-term disability associated with these events is similar to that resulting from diabetes and chronic lung disease. Osteoporosis (thinning of bone structure with age) is a leading cause of these broken bones. Professor Harvey leads internationally competitive work to understand the causes and risk factors across the whole lifecourse for osteoporosis and broken bones in older age.
In this presentation he will describe work at the University of Southampton's MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, which he directs, demonstrating the benefit of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy for offspring bone mass, with a view to improving bone development throughout life. At the older end of the lifecourse, he will present the Centre’s work on screening for high fracture risk and optimising the treatment of osteoporosis.
