HIV-positive women face a greater risk of bone fracture than HIV-negative women, despite having the same bone mineral density, say the authors of a study published in Osteoporosis International.

Jerilynn Prior, MD, a Professor of Endocrinology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and her colleagues compared the medical records of 138 HIV-positive women with the records of 402 HIV-negative women. Both groups were similar in terms of age, bone mineral density, family history of osteoporosis, calcium intake and other factors known to affect bone health.

26 percent of the HIV-positive women had a history of a fragility fracture—a broken bone that occurs as a result of a fall from standing height or less—compared with just 17 percent of the HIV-negative women. This result was statistically significant, meaning that the difference was too great to have occurred by chance.

Dr. Prior’s team theorized that the difference in fracture rates, despite equal bone mineral density, may be due to the effect of HIV infection within the bone in a manner that does not show up on standard measures of bone health.