The findings in this study indicate that there appear to be important variations in the QoL decrements related to fracture between countries.

Hip, vertebral, and distal forearm fractures incur substantial loss in QoL and for patients with hip or vertebral fracture, QoL is markedly impaired for at least 18 months.

Study design: Prospective study on patients with spinal cord injuries. Objectives: To evaluate the loss of bone mineral density (BMD) in various body regions of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and its dependence on weight bearing activities during 2 years post injury. Methods: BMD of the whole body was measured in patients with SCI. Baseline measurement was performed in 6-16 weeks after SCI, the second and the thirdFrespectively 12 and 24 months after injury. Fifty-four subjects were selected and divided into two groups: standing and non-standing. From these groups 27 pairs were made according to gender, age and height. Results: There was found to be a well-marked decrease in BMD values for lower extremities, but there was no significant difference between paraplegic and tetraplegic patients 1 and 2 year after injury. Leg BMD reduced by 19.62% (95% CI, 17-22%) in the standing group and by 24% (95% CI, 21-27%) in non-standing group during the first year. Two years after SCI patients in standing group had significantly higher leg BMDF1.018 g/cm 2 (95% CI, 0.971-1.055 g/cm 2 ) than in the non-standing groupF0.91 g/cm 2 (95% CI, 0.872-0.958 g/cm 2 ) (Pp0.0001). Conclusion: SCI patients who performed daily standing X1 h and not less than 5 days per week, had significantly higher BMD in the lower extremities after 2 years in comparison to those patients who did not perform standing.

Objectives The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire, a sarcopenia-specific patientreported outcome measure, evaluates quality of life with 55 items. It produces 7 domain scores and 1 overall quality of life score, all between 0 and 100 points. This study aims to contribute to the interpretation of the SarQoL scores by calculating the standard error of measurement (SEM) and smallest detectable change (SDC) in a sample of subjects from 9 studies. Methods Subjects from 9 studies (conducted in Belgium,