A relatively new and effective class of oral antidiabetic agents, thiazolidinediones, have gained in popularity and widely used to treat diabetic patients with insulin resistance. Two of the more popular drugs from this class are prioglitazone and rosiglitazone, which account for 21% of oral diabetes medications prescribed in the United States and 5% of those in Europe.

Christian Meier, MD, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland studied 1,020 during a 11 year period ending in 2005. After adjusting for various risk factors researchers found that individuals taking rosiglitazone or pioglitazone had approximately double to triple the odds of hip, wrist, and other non-spine fractures, when compared to other diabetic drug treatments.