Incidence of fractures among epilepsy patients: a population-based retrospective cohort study in the General Practice Research Database.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the incidence of various fractures in a cohort of patients with epilepsy with a reference cohort of patients not having epilepsy.


METHODS
Patients were included in the epilepsy cohort if they had at least one diagnosis of epilepsy in their medical history and had sufficient evidence of "active" epilepsy (use of antiepileptic drugs, diagnoses) after the practice was included in the General Practice Research Database (GPRD). Two reference patients were sampled for each patient with epilepsy from the same practice. Primary outcome was the occurrence of any fracture during follow-up. Poisson regression analysis was used to estimate incidence density ratios (IDRs).


RESULTS
The study population comprised 40,485 and 80,970 patients in the epilepsy and reference cohorts, respectively. The median duration of follow-up was approximately 3 years. The overall incidence rate in the epilepsy cohort was 241.9 per 10,000 person-years. This rate was about twice as high as that in reference cohort: age- and sex-adjusted IDR, 1.89 (95% CI, 1.81-1.98). When comparing IDRs among the different groups of fractures, the highest relative-risk estimate was found for hip and femur fractures (adjusted IDR, 2.79; 95% CI, 2.41-3.24). IDRs were consistently elevated across age and sex groups and across fracture subtypes.


CONCLUSIONS
The overall risk of fractures was nearly twice as high among patients with epilepsy compared with the general population. The relative fracture risk was highest for hip and femur. Further study is necessary to elucidate whether this elevated risk is due to the disease, the use of antiepileptic drugs, or both.
Souverein
Patrick C
PC
Department of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacotherapy, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. P.C.Souverein@pharm.uu.nl
Webb
David J
DJ
Petri
Hans
H
Weil
John
J
Van Staa
Tjeerd P
TP
Egberts
Toine
T
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019992:Databases as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005264:Femoral Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors