[A-TOP research group/JOINT program]

A-TOP research consortium has been authorized at 2000 by the Japanese Society of Osteoporosis and assisted by Public Health Research Foundation in order to obtain the clinical evidences regarding osteoporosis treatment. Each clinical trial program was named as JOINT (Japanese Osteoporosis Intervention Trial), which was multi-center randomized open label trial and was registered into clinical trial registry. JOINT-02 was started at 2003 to confirm the effect of combination treatment of active vitamin D3 and alendronate in the prevention of osteoporotic bone fracture occurrence. This trial will be terminated at 2009 and the subsequent third clinical trial to obtain the evidence regarding the combination effects of risedronate and vitamin K2 as JOINT-03 project has been started from 2008. Each trial included around 2,000 participants mainly from practitioner and the registration of the cases in JOINT-02 has been finished within 3 years, suggesting that the participated practitioner would have sympathy with the research aims. The A-TOP research group would have carried out epidemiological studies regarding establishment of osteoporosis database (JOB study), which will contribute the additional knowledge of Japanese osteoporosis.