Association of Dietary Niacin Intake With Incident Hip Fracture, BMD, and Body Composition: The Cardiovascular Health Study

Interest in niacin has increased in the setting of reports suggesting that niacin plays a role in diseases of aging. No study to date has examined the association of dietary niacin intake with multiple skeletal health parameters including bone mineral density (BMD), hip fractures, and body composition, and none have included both African American and white men and women. Participants included 5187 men and women ≥65 years from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Mean daily dietary niacin intake was 32.6 mg, with quartiles 1 through 4 defined as 3.6 to 21.8 mg/day, 21.9 to 30.2 mg/day, 30.3 to 40.9 mg/day, and 41.0 to 102.4 mg/day, respectively. Risk of incident hip fracture per 10 mg increment of daily dietary niacin intake was estimated using proportional hazards models. During a median follow-up of 13 years, 725 participants had an incident hip fracture. In models adjusted for demographic and clinical characteristics and diet, dietary niacin intake was significantly associated with an increased risk of hip fractures (hazard ratio [HR] 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.24) with spline models suggesting a U-shaped association. In post hoc analyses, both the lowest (HR 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.66) and highest (HR 1.53; 95% CI, 1.20 to 1.95) quartiles of niacin intake were associated with an increased risk of incident hip fracture versus quartiles 2 and 3. There was a trend for a significant inverse association of dietary niacin intake with hip BMD (p = 0.06), but no significant association with total body BMD or any body composition measures. In this cohort of elderly, community-dwelling African American and white men and women, both high and low dietary niacin intakes were associated with a significantly increased risk of subsequent hip fracture, suggesting a possible U-shaped association. By comparison, dietary niacin may have an inverse linear association with hip BMD.