“Dismal Treatment Rates” Seen After Hip Fracture

Edited by Susan Sadoughi, MD, and André Sofair, MD, MPH

Patients hospitalized for hip fracture rarely receive osteoporosis medications afterward, according to a JAMA Network Open study.

Using 2004–2015 files from a U.S. health claims database, researchers identified nearly 100,000 adults aged 50 and older who were hospitalized for hip fracture and were not taking osteoporosis medications at the time of fracture.

In 2004, just 10% of patients began osteoporosis medications within 6 months after their fracture. This declined to 3% by 2015. In an analysis that accounted for numerous confounders, initiation of osteoporosis medications was associated with 4.2 fewer fractures per 100 person-years.

A commentator writes, “These dismal treatment rates from as recent as 2015, despite a wealth of evidence about the markedly elevated fracture risk and the availability of effective and safe treatments, can only be described as a shocking failure to provide adequate care to a high-risk population.”