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Protective Effects of β-Blockers on Bone in Older Adults with Dementia

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Abstract

Increased β-adrenergic receptor activity has been hypothesized to cause bone loss in those with dementia. We investigated the effect of long-term β-blocker use on rate of bone loss in older adults with dementia. We used a linear mixed-effects model to estimate the relationship between long-term β-blocker use and rate of bone loss in participants from the Health Aging and Body Composition study. Records of 1198 participants were analyzed, 44.7% were men. Among the men, 25.2% had dementia and 20.2% were on β-blockers, while in the women, 22.5% had dementia and 16.6% received β-blockers. In the 135 men with dementia, 23 were taking β-blockers, while 15 of 149 women with dementia were using β-blockers. In men with dementia, β-blocker users had 0.00491 g/cm2 less bone mineral density (BMD) loss per year at the femoral neck (i.e., 0.63% less loss per year) than non-users (p < 0.05). No differences were detected in women with or without dementia and men without dementia. β-blockers may be protective by slowing down bone loss in older men with dementia.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Family and Community Medicine, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Khiem Khuc, Jude des Bordes, Abayomi Ogunwale & Nahid J. Rianon

  2. Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Maria-Bernadette Madel & Florent Elefteriou

  3. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Catherine Ambrose

  4. Department of Neurology, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Paul Schulz

  5. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Ann Schwartz

  6. Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, 6431 Fannin Street #MSB G.150, Houston, United States

    Nahid J. Rianon

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Contributions

Catherine Ambrose, Paul Schulz, Florent Elefteriou, Ann Schwartz, and Nahid Rianon contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Khiem Khuc, Abayomi Ogunwale Maria-Bernadette Madel, Florent Elefteriou, and Nahid Rianon. Khiem Khuc, Abayomi Ogunwale, Jude des Bordes, Florent Elefteriou, Paul Schulz, and Nahid Rianon contributed to the first draft of the manuscript and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and contributed to its revisions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Nahid Rianon was the guarantor.

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Correspondence to Nahid J. Rianon.

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Conflict of Interest

Khiem Khuc, Jude des Bordes, Abayomi Ogunwale, Maria-Bernadette Madel, Catherine Ambrose, Paul Schulz, Florent Elefteriou, Ann Schwartz, and Nahid J. Rianon have no conflict of interest to disclose.

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This study was approved by our institutional Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (HSC-MS-21-0681). The study used de-identified secondary data. It was exempted from the requirement of informed consent.

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Khuc, K., des Bordes, J., Ogunwale, A. et al. Protective Effects of β-Blockers on Bone in Older Adults with Dementia. Calcif Tissue Int (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-024-01221-4

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