title: Risk of osteoporotic fracture in a large population-based cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although osteoporosis has been reported to be more common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), little is known whether the risk of osteoporotic fractures in these patients differs by age, sex, and anatomic site.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study was conducted using a health care utilization database. Incidence rates (IRs) and rate ratios (RRs) of osteoporotic fractures with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models compared the risk of osteoporotic fracture at typical sites between RA and non-RA patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During a median 1.63-year follow-up, 872 (1.9%) of 47,034 RA patients experienced a fracture. The IR for osteoporotic fracture at typical sites among RA patients was 9.6 per 1,000 person-years, 1.5 times higher than the rate of non-RA patients. The IR was highest for hip fracture (3.4 per 1,000 person-years) in RA. The IRs across all age groups were higher for women than men and increased with older age in both groups. The RRs were elevated in RA patients across all common sites of osteoporotic fracture: hip (1.62, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.84), wrist (1.15, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.32), pelvis (2.02, 95% CI 1.77 to 2.30), and humerus (1.51, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.84). After confounding adjustment, a modest increase in risk for fracture was noted with RA (hazard ratio 1.26, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.38).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures for RA patients across all age groups, sex and various anatomic sites, compared with non-RA patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA. skim62@partners.org
authors.forename: Seo Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneeweiss
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Gregory W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: Chun-Lan
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Garneau
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Solomon
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors