SOF, a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health, began in 1986. The multi-center Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) has 20 years of prospective data about osteoporosis that has served as the basis for many findings about osteoporosis and aging in women ≥ age 65. In addition to adjudication of fractures, SOF has tracked cases of incident breast cancer, and total and cause-specific mortality. The data include serial measures of bone mineral density, measurements of sex and calcitropic hormones, tests of strength and function, cognitive exams, sleep measurements, use of medication, health habits and much more. Most data are available in the current release.
In 1986, SOF enrolled 9,704 primarily Caucasian women and continues to track these women with clinical visits approximately every 2 years. Data from all nine completed visits are now available to the public. At the sixth visit in 1997, SOF enrolled an additional 662 African-American women who are now seen with the original cohort. Baseline data fields particular to these African-American women are prefaced with “AA” before the field name instead of the standard “V#”.