RESEARCH ARTICLE Low Osteoporosis Treatment Initiation Rate in Women after Distal Forearm or Proximal Humerus Fracture: A Healthcare Database Nested Cohort Study

Treatment initiation rates following fragility fractures have often been reported to be low and in recent years numerous programs have been implemented worldwide to increase them. This study aimed at describing osteoporosis (OP) treatment initiation in a representative sample of women who were hospitalized for a distal forearm fracture (DFF) or proximal humerus fracture (PHF) in 2009–2011 in France. The data source was a nationwide sample of 600,000 individuals, extracted from the French National Insurance Healthcare System database. All women aged 50 years and older who were hospitalized for a DFF or PHF between 2009 and 2011 and who had not received any OP treatment in the preceding 12 months were included in a retrospective cohort study. OP treatments initiated during the year following the fracture were analyzed. From 2009 to 2011, 729 women were hospital-ized for a DFF or a PHF and 284 were on OP treatment at the time of the fracture occur-rence. Among the 445 women who had no prevalent OP treatment, 131 (29.4%) received supplementation treatment only (vitamin D and/or calcium) and 42 (9.4%) received a phar-macologic OP treatment in the year following their fracture. Pharmacological OP treatment