‘Statin’ drugs reduce fracture risk in men
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Men who take a cholesterol-lowering ‘statin’ drug (such as Lipitor or Zocor, for example) may be protecting more than their heart. A large study comprised mostly of elderly men shows that the drugs reduce the risk of suffering a bone fracture.
Previous research investigating the link between statins and fracture risk, conducted primarily among women, has yielded mixed results.
The current study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine by Dr. Richard E. Scranton and his colleagues, represents one of the largest studies to date. The roughly 91,000 subjects—approximately 95 percent men—were drawn from patients receiving care in the New England VA Health System between 1998 and 2001.
Among the participants, 28,063 were prescribed statins, 2195 were on some other type of lipid-lowering medication, and 60,794 were not prescribed any lipid-lowering medications.
In analyses that took account of age, weight, whether or not the individual had the bone thinning condition osteoporosis and other disorders, and other medications, the investigators found that taking statins was associated with a 36 percent reduction in fracture risk compared with taking no lipid-lowering therapy, and a 32 percent risk reduction compared with non-statin lipid-lowering therapy.
Scranton, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his colleagues also evaluated outcomes among subjects first prescribed statins during the study period. When stratified by dose, those taking the highest amounts were 50 percent less likely to suffer a fracture than those taking the lowest doses.
Further studies looking into the connection between statins and protection against fractures are needed, the investigators maintain, since “the potential public health impact is too great to leave this question unanswered.”
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, September 26, 2005.
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