Sleep Abnormalities, Obesity, Falls, and Bone Fracture Intersectoral Linkages in the Elderly: Review of Salient Peer Reviewed Research Observations and  Complementary Medicine Applications

Ray Marks
OARC Clinical Research and Education Director, Ontario

Corresponding Author: Dr. Ray Marks, OARC Clinical Research and Education Director, Ontario L3T 5H3, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

Received: October 30, 2026                                                                  Published: November 11, 2026

Citation: Marks R. Sleep Abnormalities, Obesity, Falls, and Bone Fracture Intersectoral Linkages in the Elderly: Review of Salient Peer Reviewed Research Observations and Complementary Medicine Applications. Int J Complement Intern Med. 2026;7(1):535–544. DOI: 10.58349/IJCIM.1.7.2026.00174

Copyright: ©2026 Marks R. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.

Abstract

Bone fractures attributable to falls, remain highly common unwanted costly injuries among many elderly, and have not truly abated in their disabling prevalence over time despite years of research, a multitude of preventable risk factors, and numerous intervention program efforts. However, very few reports link the strong falls-fracture link to obesity, rather than frailty, and even fewer allude to possible interacting sleep issues as a possible intervention target in the context of allaying obesity as well as a possible bone fracture risk among at least some elderly. This is despite ample evidence that body metabolism, bone and overall health status, including weight and cognitive status depend on adequate rather than deficient or excess sleep, an emergent epidemic among many aging populations. This review aimed to specifically assess if sleep disturbances do have a possible clinically relevant bearing on the risk of incurring a fracture directly or indirectly, among older obese adults and if so if anything can be done to mitigate this possible attribute. The specific aim was to explore and summarize what we know, and how this might inform future research and practice. Using the PUBMED and Google Scholar data bases representing the topic of sleep in relation to obesity and especially fragility fractures among the elderly [2000-2026], we found that while discordant, rather than uniform, this idea is worthy of both future study, as well as efforts to avert several dire clinical outcomes, including both the direct, as well as the indirect impact of sleep deficits on falls and fracture injury risks as well as on obesity and osteosarcopenia. In this regard, it appears non-medical efforts to foster sleep may not only minimize excess harmful body weight gains, and need to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, but poor cognitive and bone health, injurious falls and a proportion of their overall costs and suffering attributes, quite substantively and safely.

Keywords: Bone, Complementary Medicine, Falls, Fractures, Sleep Deprivation, Sleep Quality, Obesity, Older Adults, Prevention, Treatment