Background and objective: The use of benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines increases the risk for hip fracture, but the effect of suvorexant, an orexin receptor antagonist, is not clear. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between suvorexant use and hip fractures in older adults.
Methods: A case-control study was conducted using real-world data (RWD) from Medical Data Vision Co., Ltd. with patients hospitalized between January 2019 and December 2020. Patients were aged 65-84 years and had been prescribed suvorexant at least once. Patients with hip fracture (cases) and those without (controls) were identified by matching up to 1:4 for sex, age (± 2 years), and hospital size category. Suvorexant exposure was identified the day before hospitalization. Hip fracture risk associated with suvorexant was presented as adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using conditional logistic regression analysis.
Results: Matching identified 389 cases and 1509 controls. The risk of hip fracture was not increased in patients treated with suvorexant [aOR: 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61-1.20]. Additionally, concomitant use of suvorexant with other hypnotics did not increase the risk. Benzodiazepines (1.01, 0.46-2.22), nonbenzodiazepines (1.16, 0.57-2.34), and melatonin (1.80, 0.82-3.94) were combined with suvorexant. The risk was increased for the use of benzodiazepine without suvorexant (1.88, 1.10-3.21).
Conclusions: Using RWD in Japanese older adults, we showed that sleep therapy with suvorexant was not associated with an increased risk of hip fracture. The results provide evidence-based drug safety information for the selection of hypnotics for sleep disorders, which increase with age.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.