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  • Review Article
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Fracture mortality: associations with epidemiology and osteoporosis treatment

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 10, pages 592–602 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Hip and vertebral osteoporotic fractures are associated with considerable immediate and long-term increased risk of death

  • The fracture event itself is responsible for part of this increased mortality risk; however, other factors such as age, sex, comorbidities and poor prefracture health status are also involved

  • The majority of incident osteoporotic fractures are nonhip, nonvertebral fractures

  • Evidence of mortality risk in nonhip, nonvertebral fractures is lacking, but evidence of an increased mortality risk with some fractures, such as those in the pelvis and humerus, does exist

  • Medical treatment with bisphosphonates has been associated with a decreased risk of mortality in patients with osteoporotic fractures in some observational studies and in one randomized controlled trial

  • Decreased cardiovascular-related mortality could be one of the potential mechanisms for the decreased risk of mortality with bisphosphonate therapy; however, further studies are required to clarify this point

Abstract

The rates of incident osteoporotic fractures seem to be stabilizing; however, fragility fractures are still associated with considerable disability, costs and an increased risk of mortality, which is particularly the case for fractures of the hip and vertebra. Mortality is usually highest during the first year after fracture; however, a notably increased mortality risk might persist for several years after the event. In addition to its efficacy in the prevention of new and recurrent osteoporotic fractures, medical treatment has been associated with improved survival after osteoporotic fractures. Observational studies and randomized controlled clinical trials have reported increased survival in patients with a fracture who are treated with bisphosphonates. Rates of medical treatment in patients with osteoporosis remain low, and although the rationale for the putative increase in survival is unclear, this emerging evidence might help further justify the use of medical treatment after fracture. However, further work is needed before medical therapy for mortality prevention in patients with osteoporotic fractures is accepted.

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  1. Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 820 Faculty Office Tower, 510 20th Street South, Birmingham, 35294, AL, USA

    Sebastian E. Sattui & Kenneth G. Saag

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S.E.S researched data for the article, wrote the article and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. K.G.S. wrote the article and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Kenneth G. Saag.

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Competing interests

K.G.S. receives research support from Amgen and Merck. He also serves as a consultant for Amgen, Eli Lilly and Merck. S.E.S. declares no competing interests.

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Sattui, S., Saag, K. Fracture mortality: associations with epidemiology and osteoporosis treatment. Nat Rev Endocrinol 10, 592–602 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2014.125

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