Why is osteoporosis such an important problem?
Osteoporosis causes more than 1.5 million fractures each year, including more than 300,000 hip fractures and 700,000 vertebral fractures. One in two women over the age of 50 and one in eight men over age 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime. The estimated national direct expenditure for hospital and nursing homes for fractures related to osteoporosis was $13.8 billion in 1995, or approximately $38 million per day. Florida s average cost for treating a hip fracture caused by osteoporosis is $21,189 for hospitalizations alone. In 1996, 15,319 Floridians sustained hip fractures at an annual cost of $324,597,800, or $889,309 per day.
