Incidence of osteoporosis and fracture in common inflammatory diseases in primary care

A number of inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis. This is thought to be because inflammation reduces bone strength (or density) meaning that bones break more easily than normal (called fragility fractures). Osteoporosis is treatable with medication which prevents fractures and as such it is important to identify conditions that are associated with the highest risk of fracture.

For some inflammatory conditions, such as RA, AS, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), medical treatment has improved substantially over the last few years meaning that fracture risk may have reduced.

For other, more common inflammatory conditions, such as psoriasis, polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and gout, we still do not know if they are associated with a higher risk of fracture or not.

The aim of this study is to compare the risk of fracture across a number of inflammatory conditions. We will also be looking at how some treatments for these conditions (for example steroids) affect risk of fracture,

This study will use data from a large database of anonymised GP records to see how frequently fragility fractures occur in patients with these 7 different inflammatory conditions.

The results of this study will be help doctors treating patients with these conditions, to see which patients should be screened for osteoporosis. This in turn will hopefully prevent fractures in these patients.