ECCEO 7 | PORTO | PORTUGAL | Daily news march 31st

TWO YOUNG RESEARCHERS HAVE BEEN GRANTED A NOVARTIS TRAVEL GRANT

At the end of the second plenary session of the first day of the Seventh ECCEO meeting, the European Society for Clinical and Economical Aspect of Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis (ESCEO) had the pleasure to present the recipients of the Novartis Travel Grants 2007.  These grants were generously supported by Novartis towards original research of significant value and international relevance in the field of osteoporosis.

POOR COMPLIANCE AND NON PERSISTENCE SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH A GREATER LIKELIHOOD OF HIP FRACTURE

The first recipient was Véronique Rabenda for her work on adherence to bisphosphonates therapy.  Véronique Rabenda has a Master in Public Health and works in the Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economic of the University of Liege. The objective of her study was to investigate adherence (persistence and compliance) to bisphosphonate therapy in a large cohort of postmenopausal women and the impact of adherence on the risk of hip fracture.  She analyzed data from mutual insurance company collected by AIM (Agence Intermutualiste) for the Belgian national social security institute (INAMI). She showed that adherence to current therapeutic regimens remains suboptimal and that poor compliance and non-persistence were significantly associated with a greater likelihood of hip fracture. These results reemphasized the importance of good compliance and persistence to bisphosphonates to reduce the risk of hip fractures.

INCREASED LEVELS OF ADIPONECTIN PERSISTENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH A DECREASE IN BONE MINERAL DENSITY

The second Novartis Travel Grant awarded J. Brent Richards. Dr Richards is a post doctoral research fellow in Genetic Epidemiology at the Twin Research Unit, St. Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College London, UK. His study showed that increased levels of adiponectin, adjusted for measures of adiposity, were persistently associated with a decrease in bone mineral density, even at non-load bearing sites, in a large population of non-diabetic postmenopausal women. These data suggest that adiponectin, an adipocyte-derived hormone, may influence bone metabolism through non-mechanical mechanisms.  This interesting study was performed in 1,525 non-diabetic women recruited from a large, prospective, population-based cohort of twins.
Due to the outstanding quality of these researches, the Scientific Committee of the ECCEO meeting has decided to accept them as oral presentations during the plenary sessions.

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