Statins may have different effects on the risk of developing osteoporosis according the specific drug, its dose and the patient’s age, a large European study has reported.

Post-menopausal women on high doses of statins might need extra monitoring, as they could be at particular risk of osteoporosis, the study authors write.

Researchers used 2006 data on almost the entire Austrian population to see whether taking a statin was associated with concurrent osteoporosis, they report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

They compared more than 353,000 people (50% male) taking statins for at least a year with more than one million age- and sex-matched patients who were not taking the drugs.