Use of Diabetes drug Metformin reduces risk of fracture

Iran: The use of metformin -- a drug used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes -- is associated with a reduced risk of fracture, finds a recent study published in the journal Osteoporosis International.

No previous study has summarized the findings of the studies establishing a link between metformin and fracture risk. A. Esmaillzadeh, Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, and colleagues summarized earlier findings on the association between metformin use and risk of fracture.

Metformin is the most commonly prescribed drug for type 2 diabetes mellitus. In recent years, in addition to glucose lowering, several studies have presented evidence suggesting some potential role for metformin, such as antitumor effect, anti-ageing effect, cardiovascular protective effect, neuroprotective effect or an optional treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome.

The researchers conducted a systematic search of all databases on the studies that considered metformin use as the exposure variable and bone fracture as the main outcome variable or as one of the outcome variables. All published articles up to October 2018 using online databases including PubMed/Medline, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus were searched.

Publications in which hazard ratios (HRs), rate or risk ratios (RRs), or odds ratios (ORs) were reported as effect size were included in the meta-analysis. It included participants aged 18 years and older.

Key findings:

• When seven effect sizes from six studies were combined, a significant inverse association between metformin use and risk of fracture was observed.


• No significant between-study heterogeneity was found.


• In addition, no evidence of publication bias was seen using Egger’s test.

"We found that metformin use was inversely associated with the risk of fracture," concluded the authors.