Key clinical point : Women with a previous fracture or who had an inflammatory rheumatic disease were more likely to start antiosteoporotic drugs (AODs) within 1 year from glucocorticoid (GC) initiation. However, the proportions starting an AOD were much lower than clinically indicated.
Major finding : Women with vs. without previous fracture were twice as likely to start an AOD within 1 year after initiating GC treatment, but the cumulative incidences were low: 9.1% vs. 4.6%, respectively. Women with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory rheumatic disease were more likely to start an AOD compared with women with other diagnoses.
Study details : This Norwegian population-based study evaluated the initiation of osteoporosis prophylaxis with AOD in women starting treatment with oral GC (n=105,477; age, 55 years or older).
Disclosures: Open Access funding was provided by the University of Bergen. Astrid Lunde is involved in the Denosumab Global Safety Study. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University receives an institutional research funding from several pharmaceutical companies, some of which manufacture AOD. None of these companies was involved in the current study. Vera Ehrenstein is a salaried employee of the Aarhus University. Ellen M Apalset, Mari Hoff, and Grethe S Tell declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Apalset EM et al. Arch Osteoporos. 2020 Aug 5. doi: 10.1007/s11657-020-00783-8 .