The use of a large pharmacoepidemiological database to study exposure to oral corticosteroids and risk of fractures: validation of study population and results

Study using data from the UK General Practice Research Database on 244,235 oral corticosteroid users and 244,235 controls. Validation of fractures showed that hip fractures were confirmed by GPs on the questionnaire in 90.7% of the cases and by discharge summary in 86.5%. The relative rate of non-vertebral fracture during oral corticosteroid use did not vary substantially between patients with different diseases, age, or gender. The sensitivity analysis, modifying the type of analysis or inclusion of patients, did not materially change the findings.