Herbal Medicine To Reduce Osteoporotic Fracture In Sarcopenia Patients: Evidence From Population-based Health Claims.

Herbal Medicine to Reduce Osteoporotic fracture in Sarcopenia Patients: Evidence from Population-Based Health Claims. PROPOSE: Osteoporosis describes low bone mass and deterioration of the micro-architecture of the bone, whereas sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Same as osteoporosis, muscle weakness due to sarcopenia is associated with some adverse clinical outcomes such as decreased quality of life, increased risk of falls, institutionalization, fractures and mortality, especially in elderly. Thus, it is essential to have a close look at the novel intervention target in preventing the onset of osteoporosis fracture for elderly. This study aimed to investigate the association between use of Herbal Medicine and the subsequent OF risk among sarcopenia patients. METHODS: This longitudinal cohort study used the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 27,745 newly diagnosed sarcopenia patients aged 20 years to 70 for 10 years. We recruited 2,822 Herbal medicine users following the onset of sarcopenia and 8,378 non-herbal medicine users. Among them, a total of 5,644 newly diagnosed sarcopenia patients were recruited, which included 2,624 cases who received the Herbal Medicine treatment and 2,624 who didn't receive the Herbal Medicine treatment. All of them were followed until the end of this cohort study to record the incidence of OF. We applied the Cox proportional hazard regression model to compute the hazard ratio (HR) of the risk of osteoporotic fracture in relation to Herbal Medicine use. RESULTS: During the study period, 1410 Herbal Medicine users and 1483 non-Herbal Medicine users sustained OF, with an incidence rate of 112.96 and 149.69, respectively, per 1000 person-years. We found that Herbal Medicine users had a significantly reduced risk of OF compared to non-Herbal Medicine users (adjusted HR 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.70-0.81). Those treated with Herbal Medicine for longer than 730 days had a remarkably lower fracture risk by 68%. CONCLUSIONS: The use of Herbal Medicine was associated with lower OF risk for sarcopenia patients, suggesting that Herbal Medicine could be integrated into conventional therapy to prevent subsequent incident of bone fracture.