Doctors’ concerns over the potential of increased fracture risk in patients on sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors should be allayed with the publication of a new study, say researchers.

The large-scale study of more than 73,000 patients published in Diabetes Care reports no difference between fracture rates in patients prescribed the drugs compared with those taking another common diabetes therapy.

Canadian researchers used data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink to compare fracture rates in nearly 9500 patients on SGLT-2 inhibitors with more than 18,400 people taking dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors.

They found fracture rates during nearly two years of follow-up were 11 per 1000 person-years in the SGLT-2 group and 14.8 per 1000 person-years in the DPP-4 group; a difference that was not statistically significant.