Biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and osteoporotic fracture risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a Danish cohort study

OBJECTIVES: Clinical trials have shown a beneficial effect from biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) on hand or axial bone loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, however it is unclear if this translates to a reduced fracture risk. We investigated the effect of bDMARDs on osteoporotic fracture risk compared to no biological treatment in rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: A cohort of 18+ rheumatoid arthritis patients from DANBIO was linked to population-based health registries in Denmark (2006-2016). Adopting a prevalent new-user design, we matched bDMARD users to bDMARD naïve patients using time-conditional propensity scores. The risk of incident osteoporotic fractures (including hip, vertebrae, humerus, and forearm) was estimated among the matched patients by Cox proportional-hazards models. RESULTS: Out of 24,678 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 4265 bDMARD users were matched to the same number of bDMARD naïve patients (mean age 56.2 years, 74% female). During follow-up, 229 osteoporotic fractures occurred among bDMARD users, and 205 fractures among bDMARD naïve patients (incidence rates 12.1 and 13.0 per 1000 person years, respectively). The use of bDMARDs was not associated with a reduced risk of osteoporotic fractures among rheumatoid arthritis patients (hazard ratio 0.97, 95% CI 0.78-1.20), compared with no biological treatment. The risk estimates were similar for all osteoporotic fracture sites. CONCLUSION: We found no independent beneficial effect from using bDMARDs on reducing the risk of osteoporotic fractures in patients with rheumatoid arthritis