Low-dose statins may offer protective effect against osteoporosis
THURSDAY, Oct. 10, 2019 (HealthDay News) — There is a dose-dependent relationship between diagnosis of osteoporosis and statin treatment, according to a study published online Sept. 26 in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Michael Leutner, M.D., from Medical University of Vienna in Austria, and colleagues used medical claims data from all Austrians (2006 to 2007) to identify all patients treated with statins and to analyze dose-dependent risks for being diagnosed with subsequent osteoporosis.
The researchers found that statin treatment was associated with an overrepresentation of diagnosed osteoporosis compared with no statin exposure (odds ratio [OR], 3.62) in a dose-dependent manner. Among low-dose treatment (0 to 10 mg per day), osteoporosis was underrepresented, including for lovastatin (OR, 0.39), pravastatin (OR, 0.68), simvastatin (OR, 0.70), and rosuvastatin (OR, 0.69). However, an overrepresentation of osteoporosis was seen when dosage exceeded the thresholds of >40 mg for simvastatin (OR, 1.64) and >20 mg for atorvastatin (OR, 1.78) and rosuvastatin (OR, 2.04).
“In clinical practice, high-risk patients for osteoporosis under high-dose statin treatment should be monitored more frequently,” the authors write.
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