Drugs commonly used to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis are linked to lower risk of pneumonia and dying from pneumonia in adults with hip fracture, say researchers.

Among about 4,000 patients with hip fracture, those who took nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates such as alendronate had a 24% lower risk of contracting pneumonia than their peers who did not. Similarly, the odds of pneumonia mortality were 35% lower in patients prescribed these drugs, reported senior author Ching‐Lung Cheung, Ph.D., from the University of Hong Kong.

Animal studies have shown that nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate treatment leads to a high concentration of the drug in the respiratory tract. “Together with its anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory properties, this may explain why N-BPs were associated with reduced risk of pneumonia, as revealed in our study,” he concluded.

Cheung has proposed that the drugs be studied as a possible treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.

The study was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.