MONTREAL — Antiresorptive drugs reduce the risk of low-trauma, nonvertebral fractures in women over 50, and women with a prevalent fracture or frank osteoporosis have most to gain from these drugs, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the International Bone and Mineral Society.
Dr. Suzanne Morin, of McGill University, Montreal, and colleagues obtained data from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos), in which more than 6,000 women over age 50 were randomly selected from across Canada. Demographics, medical history, and bone mineral density (BMD) were collected.
The researchers conducted a case-control analysis of the data. Women with self-reported incident low-trauma fractures, excluding fractures of the head, hands, feet or vertebrae, were matched with controls with respect to time in study, age, prevalent osteoporosis, prevalent vertebral deformity, prior clinical low-trauma fracture, and baseline BMD availability; 477 cases and 1,377 controls were included. Among cases, 37% were current users of antiresorptive agents (estrogen, bisphosphonates, selective estrogen receptor modulators [SERMs], and calcitonin) versus 41% of controls. Antiresorptive drug use was tied to an adjusted odds ratio of 0.68 for risk of a low-trauma fracture. Among those with a prevalent fracture or a BMD indicative of osteoporosis, OR was 0.58, versus 0.88 for women with neither of these risk factors.