Impact of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is twice as common in white and Hispanic women as in black women. In white women 50 years and older, the lifetime risk of osteoporotic fractures approaches 40 percent.4 More than 90 percent of hip and vertebral fractures in elderly white women are attributed to osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is responsible for almost 1 million vertebral and hip fractures annually. In 1995, osteoporotic fractures resulted in 2.5 million physician visits, 432,000 hospitalizations, and 180,000 nursing home admissions. In the United States alone, annual medical expenditures for the management of osteoporotic fractures may be as high as $15 billion.

Vertebral fractures trigger back pain, limit activity, and confine patients to bed. Multiple vertebral fractures cause kyphosis and loss of height. Fracture at any site increases the risk for subsequent fracture: up to 20 percent of women who have an incident vertebral fracture incur another fracture within one year. One analysis found that postmenopausal women with hip or clinical (i.e., symptomatic) vertebral fractures had an age-adjusted increased risk of death (greater than sixfold risk after hip fracture, greater than eightfold risk after vertebral fracture) during the next four years.