Decreased fracture incidence with traditional Chinese medicine therapy in patients with osteoporosis: a nationwide population-based cohort study

BackgroundThere are no published studies regarding the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the prevention of osteoporotic fracture. Therefore, we conducted this nationwide, population-based cohort study to investigate the probable effect of TCM to decrease the fracture rate.MethodsWe identified cases with osteoporosis and selected a comparison group that was frequency-matched according to sex, age (per 5years), diagnosis year of osteoporosis, and index year. The difference between the two groups in the development of fracture was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test.ResultsAfter inserting age, gender, urbanization level, and comorbidities into the Cox's proportional hazard model, patients who used TCM had a lower hazard ratio (HR) of fracture (adjusted HR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.37-0.59) compared to the non-TCM user group. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed that osteoporosis patients who used TCM had a lower incidence of fracture events than those who did not (p<0.00001). Our study also demonstrated that the longer the TCM use, the lesser the fracture rate.ConclusionOur study showed that TCM might have a positive impact on the prevention of osteoporotic fracture.