Highlights
- •Menopausal women had protection against fractures with higher dose of hormones.
- •Menopausal women had protection against fractures with higher adherence to a hormone regimen.
- •Progestogen showed a stronger protective effect than estrogen.
- •Past exposure to estrogen or progestogen offered protection against fractures.
Abstract
Objective
To investigate the association between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and the risk
of bone fracture in menopausal women in Taiwan.
Study design
The longitudinal, population-based, nested case-control study in Taiwan involved 5269
women aged > 45 years with fractures and 21,076 matched randomly selected controls
without fractures. A conditional logistic regression model of analysis was employed.
Main outcome measures
The association between the risk of bone fracture and various HRT-related parameters,
including the timing, dosage, and adherence, was investigated.
Results
Women with menopausal syndrome were protected from fractures when they received hormone
drugs at high cumulative defined daily doses (DDDs) (Cumulative DDDs≥360) (odds ratio
[OR]: 0.90, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.82−0.99) and when their adherence was
high (over 0.5) (OR: 0.70, 95 % CI: 0.60−0.82). The risk of fracture also decreased
with high cumulative DDDs and high adherence combined (OR: 0.71, 95 % CI: 058−0.86).
Subgroup analyses suggested that estrogen-containing regimens showed a protective
effect against fractures at high cumulative DDDs or when adherence was high. Similar
results were also observed with progestogen-containing regimens. Past exposure to
an estrogen-containing regimen showed a protective effect against fractures when adherence
was high. Past exposure to a progestogen-containing regimen showed a protective effect
against fractures at high cumulative DDDs and when adherence was high.
Conclusions
The results indicate that past exposure to estrogen-containing or progestogen-containing
regimens exerts protective effects against bone fracture. These effects increased
with higher cumulative DDDs and with adherence in a dose-dependent manner.
Abbreviations:
HRT (hormone replacement therapy), DDD (defined daily dose), NHIRD (National Health Insurance Research Database), OR (odds ratio), CI (confidence interval)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 08, 2021
Accepted:
December 24,
2020
Received in revised form:
December 23,
2020
Received:
September 9,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
