Statins use may decrease risk of osteoporotic fractures among elderly

Written By : Aditi |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2023-08-18T10:45:43+05:30 | Updated On 18 Aug 2023 11:57 AM IST

Researchers have found in a new study that statin use was associated with significant reduction in the risk of osteoporotic fractures among general older population.

Research author Dr Seo said, "Statin users experienced a decline in risk of major osteoporotic fractures, hip fractures and vertebral fractures."

The study has been published in Osteoporosis International entitled Age- and dose-dependent effect of statin use on the risk of osteoporotic fracture in older adults.

Statins have protective effects on bone, but their association with osteoporosis-related measurement has controversial results.

In the present research article, researchers have found the Age, dose, and duration-dependent osteoprotective effect of statins in the older population. They have revealed the association of statin with osteoporotic fractures using the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Senior cohort database.

In this study 365,656 elderly who had no history of osteoporosis were started on a statin on January 1 2004. These were observed till December 31 2012.

The key results of the study are:

· The follow-up period was 6.27 years.

· During this period, there were 54,959 osteoporotic fractures, with the majority of vertebral fractures constituting 69.5%.

· Using statin decreased the risk of all outcomes for major osteoporotic fractures, hip fractures and vertebral fractures with adjusted HR of 0.77, 0.49 and 0.70.

· For those with statin initiated at Age≥ 80 years had the highest risk reduction for most outcomes.

· There was a negative association of a Higher cumulative dose of statin with the osteoporotic fracture risk; 0.97 for 30-364 cumulative daily defined dose, 0.45 for 365-1,094 and 0.22 for ≥ 1,095.

Based on the study's findings, they wrote that statin use reduced the risk of osteoporotic fractures in the older population.

BDS, MDS in Periodontics and Implantology

Dr. Aditi Yadav is a BDS, MDS in Periodontics and Implantology. She has a clinical experience of 5 years as a laser dental surgeon. She also has a Diploma in clinical research and pharmacovigilance and is a Certified data scientist. She is currently working as a content developer in e-health services. Dr. Yadav has a keen interest in Medical Journalism and is actively involved in Medical Research writing.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751