Japanese people in both Japan and in Hawaii have a lower incidence of hip fractures than
white people in Hawaii or on the mainland of the United States. Hip fractures usually occur
after a fall, and differing incidence rates of falls might contribute to the observed differences
in hip fracture rates. To investigate this possibility, we undertook a prospective study of falls
among elderly Japanese men and women living in Hawaii using intensive surveillance
methods similar to those used in studies of predominantly white populations. For our …