Life after Fracture: Recurrence and Risk Factors at the FFN Congress
Posted by
29-Aug-2017
Osteoporosis is a global health crisis and whilst treatment can reduce the subsequent risk of fracture by 15-70%, a huge majority of osteoporosis patients are still not being identified or initiated on to treatment following a fracture.
UCB recently attended this year’s Fragility Fracture Network (FFN) Congress in Malmö, Sweden, where data from a recent study investigating the incidence and risk factors for new fractures in Swedish patients were presented. The analysis was performed by Quantify Research and funded by UCB.
The study analysed Swedish patient register data of postmenopausal women with their first observed fracture, from 2006-2012 and found that after a vertebral fracture the risk of subsequent fracture within 12 month is 2-times higher than other fracture types. Other identified risk factors included advanced age, particularly in those over 80 years, multiple comorbidities and taking drugs that increase the risk of falls.
These data, taken from a real-world setting, act as a reminder that post-fracture diagnosis and treatment are extremely important aspects of osteoporosis care, particularly in a disease area where so few people are treated following first fracture. This treatment gap was demonstrated in another study supported by UCB and presented at FFN, which found that only 6.6% of treatment-naïve patients over the age of 50 started osteoporosis treatment within one year of first fracture.
Attention to all such risk factors, most importantly advanced age where treatment initiation in in the post-fracture setting is often below average, will assist in identifying postmenopausal women at short-term subsequent fracture risk.
To learn more about the osteoporosis treatment gap, you can access the International Osteoporosis Foundation’s report "Mind the (treatment) gap: a global perspective on current and future strategies for prevention of fragility fractures" here.
UCB recently attended this year’s Fragility Fracture Network (FFN) Congress in Malmö, Sweden, where data from a recent study investigating the incidence and risk factors for new fractures in Swedish patients were presented. The analysis was performed by Quantify Research and funded by UCB.
The study analysed Swedish patient register data of postmenopausal women with their first observed fracture, from 2006-2012 and found that after a vertebral fracture the risk of subsequent fracture within 12 month is 2-times higher than other fracture types. Other identified risk factors included advanced age, particularly in those over 80 years, multiple comorbidities and taking drugs that increase the risk of falls.
These data, taken from a real-world setting, act as a reminder that post-fracture diagnosis and treatment are extremely important aspects of osteoporosis care, particularly in a disease area where so few people are treated following first fracture. This treatment gap was demonstrated in another study supported by UCB and presented at FFN, which found that only 6.6% of treatment-naïve patients over the age of 50 started osteoporosis treatment within one year of first fracture.
Attention to all such risk factors, most importantly advanced age where treatment initiation in in the post-fracture setting is often below average, will assist in identifying postmenopausal women at short-term subsequent fracture risk.
To learn more about the osteoporosis treatment gap, you can access the International Osteoporosis Foundation’s report "Mind the (treatment) gap: a global perspective on current and future strategies for prevention of fragility fractures" here.
Leave a Comment