Exposure to Drugs Related to Injurious Falls Risk and to Bisphosphonates in Nursing Home Residents With Recent Fracture.

It describes medication use only in the 30 days before a fixed index date, so it cannot show what happened after the fracture or whether medication changes caused falls or fractures. Residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage were excluded, and their medication use may differ from fee-for-service residents. Some residents prescribed oral bisphosphonates before the 30-day lookback period may have been counted as non-users, although the authors expected this misclassification to be limited. The study counted medication classes and days supplied, not doses or number of medications within a class, so it cannot show how much drug each resident received. Non-hip fractures were not categorized further, so findings may differ across fracture types. It assessed only oral bisphosphonates, not other osteoporosis treatments, so total osteoporosis treatment may be underestimated.

Do not read the low oral bisphosphonate use and high falls-risk medication use as proof that changing medications will reduce future falls or fractures. The study described medication use in a 30-day window and did not test treatment changes or follow outcomes.