The overall Women's Health Initiative (WHI) program is intended to address cardiovascular disease, cancers of the breast and colon/rectum, and osteoporosis, the most common causes of death, disability, and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. The major components of the WHI are: a randomized controlled clinical trial of postmenopausal Hormone Therapy (HT), Dietary Modification (DM), and Calcium/Vitamin D supplementation (CaD); and a companion observational study (OS). The Clinical Trials and Observational Study components were completed in 2005; the WHI Extension Study continues to follow all consenting participants for health outcomes and selected exposures. This project will perform research to maximize the scientific yield from the biologic resource and associated participant exposure and outcome data in the WHI program. The objective is to improve understanding of the biochemical factors that predict the risk of fracture in minority women and to test whether these biochemical factors are independent of other risk factors such as body weight, smoking, and physical activity.
