Effect of the women’s health initiative on prescription anti-osteoporosis medication utilization

Abstract

Although reductions in HT utilization were accompanied by increased utilization of newer AOM, treatment prevalence for osteoporosis remains sub-optimal.

Long-Term Effect of the Women's Health Initiative Study on Antiosteoporosis Medication Prescribing

“…Our findings on patterns of AOM prevalence after the WHI publication were similar to those in the published literature, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] indicating that the prevalence of estrogen use declined by 29%-69% and bisphosphonate use increased by about 18%. Our study found a similar decrease in the prevalence of visits associated with estrogen prescription (46% reduction), but in contrast to those studies, we found a more than 2-fold increase in bisphosphonate-related visits after the WHI publication.…”

“…CI, confidence interval; GP=FP, general=family practitioner; IM, internal medicine; OBGYN, obstetricians=gynecologists; OR, odds ratio.hospital setting, particularly given the already documented low prevalence of AOM use in black women [39][40][41][42][43]. Most relevant to our findings was a study by Farley et al,20 who evaluated the racial variability before and after the WHI publication using 2002 and 2003 national data. They reported a significantly lower prescribing rate of AOM and newer AOM therapies among blacks.…”

“…Several studies have documented changes in patterns of osteoporosis pharmacotherapy after the WHI publication from self-report, automated pharmacy data, Medicaid administrative data, and other national-level data sources. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Based on research findings, both declines in hormone therapy and switches to lowerdose hormone therapy and other alternative antiosteoporosis medications (AOM) occurred after July 2002.…”

Trends in the pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis in Spain from 2000 to 2008

“…As far as we know, this is the first study to document a decrease in raloxifene use which, in fact, increased in other countries after the publication of the Women's Health Initiative study [18,20]. Raloxifene is a selective estrogen-receptor modulator that binds the estrogen receptor, leading to estrogen-agonist effects in some tissues and estrogenantagonist effects in others.…”

Epidemiology, costs, and burden of osteoporosis in Argentina, 2009

“…The drop in the number of prescriptions for estrogens could be due to the impact of the findings in the Women's Health Initiative and the Heart and Estrogen/ Progestin Replacement Study II trials, indicating increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease after prolonged use. A similar decrease in hormonal preparations use among postmenopausal women has been documented in Europe and Latin America [36][37][38].…”