Objective:

To establish the effectiveness of alendronate, compared to a control group, in preventing hip fracture and outline the short-term mortality.

Methods:

Observational, analytical study, with all patients treated at the Social Security, for at least 1 continuous year, with alendronate, calcium and vitamin D (group A) and control group (C) with calcium and vitamin D, follow up by three years or until the event occurred (hip fracture) according to the institutional record for diagnosis and discharge status (alive or deceased). Subgroup analyzes> 65 years.

Results:

The total sample included 10395 patients that followed the pretreatment and the 3-year follow up. Group A n = 5.570 (53.58%) exposed to weekly 70mg alendronate with calcium and vitamin D, 95% female, mean age 69 years, median treatment period before event 749 days. Control group C n = 4.825, that received calcium and vitamin D, 89% female, 66 years old and 775 days of treatment, respectively. During the studied period (three years) 108 fractures were registered, 60 in group A (1.08%) and 48 in group C (0.99%). The effectiveness of the treatment with alendronate (with calcium and vitamin D) to prevent hip fracture was established in the 98.92%, similar to that registered for the control group (99.01). The acute mortality for hip fracture, registered in a maximum time of 35 days of hospitalization (table 2), in the alendronate group reached the 11.66% and were all women. In the control group acute mortality reached 22.91% and 72.72% were women.

Conclusions:

Alendronate showed similar effectiveness to control to prevent hip fractures. Older adults were more vulnerable to suffer this event and a short-term fatal outcome.