Gastric acid medication 'could increase fracture risks'
A new report has warned that long-term use of drugs typically used to reduce gastric acid production could increase a person's risk of suffering from osteoporosis-related fractures.
The new study by a team from the University of Manitoba in Canada was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Trials involved 15,792 patients that suffered fractures of the hip, vertebra or wrist between April 1996 and March 2004 and 47,289 controls.
It was found that people that used proton pump inhibitors for longer than seven years were more likely to suffer from osteoporosis-related fractures.
Specifically, the team said that the risk of hip fracture appeared to be elevated after five years of continuous proton pump inhibitor use and that the chances of any fracture jumped after seven years.
However, they stressed that the data did not indicate that short-term use of the drugs increased osteoporosis-related fracture risks.
On the basis of these results, Dr Laura Targownik and the rest of the team concluded: Further study is required to determine the clinical importance of this finding and to determine the value of osteoprotective medications for patients with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors."
An Arthritis Research Campaign spokesman commented that many people with osteoarthritis took proton pump inhibitors with their non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to protect them from potential side effects such as stomach bleeds.
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