Behandling med hormonsubstitutionsterapi nedsætter risikoen for underarmsbrud hos postmenopausale kvinder: Resultater fra Danish Osteoporosis Prevention Study

In a prospective, controlled, comprehensive cohort trial of 2,016 healthy early postmenopausal women aged 45-58 years we studied fracture prevention through the use of oestrogen. There were two main study arms: a randomised arm (randomised to HRT [n=502] or not [n=504] and a non-randomised arm (on HRT [n=221] or not [n=789] by own choice). After five years, an intention-to-treat analysis (n=2,016) showed a reduction in the overall fracture risk (RR=0.73, 95% CI: 0.50-1.05) and in the forearm fracture risk (RR=0.45, 95% CI: 0.22-0.90) with oestrogen. Restriction of the analysis to women who had adhered to their initial allocation of either oestrogen (n=395) or no oestrogen (n=977) showed a significant reduction in both the overall fracture risk (RR=0.61, 95% CI: 0.39-0.97) and the risk of forearm fractures (RR=0.24, 95% CI: 0.09-0.69). We conclude that it is possible to reduce the number of forearm fractures in early postmenopausal women by the use of oestrogen as primary prevention.