As PLWH age, they are at an increased risk for osteoporosis and fragility fractures, independent of long-term ART use [
25‐
31]. In a cross-sectional study of 202 drug-naïve and drug-experienced PLWH, age was associated with the risk of fractures [odds ratio (OR) for each year = 1.18; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.25;
P = 0.01]. Additionally, vertebral fracture was more prevalent among those aged 50–67 years compared with those aged 31–50 (32% vs. 13%;
P = 0.008) [
32]. A stronger association between HIV infection and major fractures in patients ≥ 59 years [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.11; 95% CI 1.05–4.22;
P = 0.035] compared with patients < 59 (HR = 1.35; 95% CI 0.88–2.07;
P = 0.17) has similarly been reported based on an analysis of medical records of Spanish PLWH (
n = 2489) [
30]. Additionally, the prevalence of fractures was higher among PLWH compared with HIV-uninfected peers for both men (
P < 0.001) and women (
P = 0.002) in a population-based study conducted at a large US healthcare system (
n = 8525 PLWH;
n = 2,208,792 HIV-uninfected), and the differences widened with increasing age [
27].
The progression of bone disease among aging PLWH is further complicated by long-term toxicity concerns observed among patients treated with certain ART regimens. There is evidence that certain nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are associated with declines in bone mineral density (BMD) and an increased risk of fractures in some studies; however, the issue remains controversial [
33‐
36]. In an evaluation of HIV-infected patients in the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Clinical Case Registry (
n = 56,660), extended use of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate was associated with an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures (yearly HR = 1.08;
P < 0.001), although this finding was no longer significant after multivariate adjustment for age, race, tobacco use, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and body mass index (HR = 1.06;
P = 0.079) [
35]. Recent results from the EuroSIDA study (
n = 20,854) showed that ever (vs. never), current (vs. no current use), and cumulative tenofovir disoproxil fumarate use was associated with increased fracture risk among PLWH in a univariate analysis; however, there was no association for any other ART investigated [
36]. After multivariate adjustment, the association between ever and current tenofovir disoproxil fumarate use remained significant [adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.40; 95% CI 1.15–1.70;
P = 0.0008 and adjusted IRR = 1.25; 95% CI 1.05–1.49;
P = 0.012, respectively], while cumulative tenofovir disoproxil fumarate use (per 5 years additional exposure) did not remain significant (adjusted IRR = 1.08; 95% CI 0.94–1.25;
P = 0.027) [
36]. Recently, tenofovir alafenamide has been used in place of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate in ART regimens and has demonstrated smaller reductions in hip and lumbar spine BMD compared with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (
P < 0.0001) [
4,
37]. However, long-term data on potential toxicity associated with tenofovir alafenamide-containing regimens are lacking [
4].