Use of cyclical etidronate and prevention of non-vertebral fractures

This study examined the effects of cyclical etidronate, when used inroutine clinical practice, on the prevention of fracture. Information wasobtained from 550 general practices in the UK that provide their medicalrecords to the General Practice Research Database. A total of 7977 patientstaking cyclical etidronate treatment and 7977 age-, sex- andpractice-matched control patients with a diagnosis of osteoporosis wereanalysed. People taking cyclical etidronate had a significantly reducedrisk of non-vertebral fracture (by 20%) and of hip fracture (by 34%)relative to the osteoporosis control patients. The relative risk ofnon-vertebral fracture was 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.70-0.92), thatof hip fracture 0.66 (0.51-0.85) and that of wrist fracture 0.81(0.58-1.14). When fracture incidence rates were compared between the twogroups, the rate of non-vertebral, hip and wrist fracture decreasedsignificantly (P < 0.05) with increasing etidronate exposure. Theresults of this study complement and extend clinical observationssupporting the anti-fracture efficacy of cyclical etidronate therapy.