Objective: Patients receiving an oral bisphosphonate for treatment of osteopenia or osteoporosis without adequate calcium intake are not optimally treated. Physicians prescribing bisphosphonates may not consistently document calcium supplementation recommendations.
Design: This is a retrospective chart review of osteoporotic or osteopenic outpatients with an active prescription for an oral bisphosphonate. This cross-sectional study was designed to determine the point prevalence of calcium supplementation recommendations by physicians.
Setting: Academic family medicine outpatient clinics.
Patients: Of the 1,229 patients with osteoporosis or osteopenia, 425 patients had an active prescription for an oral bisphosphonate and were included in the study.
Interventions: The active/inactive medication list and physician clinic notes in the electronic medical record were reviewed for documentation regarding calcium.
Main outcome measures: The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients on bisphosphonates also receiving calcium. The secondary endpoint was the identification of demographic characteristics associated with lower use of calcium.
Results: The patient sample was 94% female, 69% white, with a mean body mass index of 27, and mean age of 72 years. Of the 425 patients, 387 (91.1%) were taking calcium or had a documented recommendation for calcium supplementation. Of the demographic characteristics evaluated, only age was statistically significantly different, with an average age of 76 years in the calcium group and 66 years of age in the noncalcium group.
Conclusion: In this study, 91% of outpatients who were prescribed a bisphosphonate also were taking calcium or had it recommended to them. The only statistically significant difference between groups was greater age for those who received calcium.