TUESDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The use of statins to lower blood lipids has the beneficial side effect of lowering the risk of fractures, according to a study published in the Sept. 26 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Richard E. Scranton, M.D., M.P.H., of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research Information Center in Boston, and colleagues evaluated data from 91,052 veterans, including 28,063 who were prescribed statins and 2,195 who were prescribed non-statin lipid-lowering medications. Among statin-only users, there were 394 fractures and there were 51 in the group using non-statin lipid-lowering therapies, compared with 2,018 fractures for the non-lipid lowering group.
Use of statins was associated with a 36% reduction in the risk of fracture compared with no therapy, and a 32% reduction compared with non-statin lipid-lowering therapy. The study was one of the largest to examine the relationship between statin use and fracture risk.
"Although we were limited in adjusting for all known confounders, this study provides additional information that fuels the debate of whether statins protect individuals against fractures. Further research is necessary to confirm or refute our findings," the authors conclude. "The potential public health impact is too great to leave this question unanswered."
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