A new study has claimed that it is better to take drugs for osteoporosis drug once in a year to increase the strength of brittle bones than a daily dose of the same.

The researchers, led by Prof David M Reid, from the University of Aberdeen, found that bone density increased faster in patients injected with zoledronic acid-which has been hailed as a breakthrough in treatment of the condition.

But over fifty percent of women stop taking the drugs within a year partly because the medication needs to be taken after fasting for 30 minutes and can cause side effects.

Osteoporosis attacks the density of patients' bones, making them more brittle and likely to fracture or break.

It occurs mostly in women after menopause or triggered by the using drugs to target other disease.

In the new study, researchers focussed on patients who had developed the condition after taking a group of drugs called glucocorticoids, which is used to treat inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

They compared the effect of giving 833 patients either a once-a-year infusion of zelondric acid or the current standard treatment of daily oral drugs.

The results found that the annual treatment increased bone density by an average of 4.1 per cent.

On the other hand, when patients were given one of the standard drugs, in this case risedronate, bone density increased by 2.7 per cent.