More risky drugs = more risk for fractures

Researchers have recently sought to estimate the risk of hip fracture risk associated with concurrent exposure to multiple drugs known to increase the risk of this outcome, examining hip fracture risk associated with treatment with a combination of 1, 2, or 3 or more of 21 drugs known to be associated with increased risk. A total of 11.3 million person-years were observed, reflecting 2 646 255 individuals (mean [SD] age, 77.2 [7.3] years. 2 827 284 person-years (25.1%) involved receipt of 1 Fracture Associated Drug (FAD); 1 322 296 (11.7%), 2 FADs; and 954 506 (8.5%), 3 or more FADs. For both genders, the risk of hip fracture was elevated after treatment with a FAD, and as the number of drugs fitting this category in the treatment regimen increased, so did the Hazard Ratio. For women, treatment with two individual FADs was associated with HRs greater than 3.00; 80 different pairs of FADs exceeded this threshold. Commonly encountered risky pairings among women included sedative hypnotics + opioids (HR, 4.90; 95% CI, 3.98-6.02; P < .001), SSRIs + benzodiazepines (HR, 4.50; 95% CI, 3.76-5.38; P < .001), and PPIs + opioids (HR, 4.00; 95% CI, 3.56-4.49; P < .001). The addition of a second and third FAD in a regimen was associated with a steep increase in fracture risk. Read more here