Management of Severe Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is both an under-diagnosed and under-treated disease. The annual costs in the US of caring for osteoporotic-related fractures parallel or exceed the annual costs of caring for myocardial infarction, breast cancer and/or cerebrovascular accident. In a large Manitoba, Canada study, the ratio of the total annual costs of either prevalent or incident osteoporotic-related fractures exceeds the same ratio calculation for many other serious chronic diseases. Furthermore, a study recently published by Oden and colleagues demonstrated that individuals with a high probability of osteoporotic fractures compromise a very significant disease burden to society and that this burden is set to increase markedly in the future. Equally as disturbing is the data showing that the percent of patients receiving a registered therapy for severe osteoporosis, even after sustaining a hip fracture, has declined from 41% in 2001 to 21% in 2010. Finally, a major contributor to the loss of independence in subjects 70 years of age and older are falls at home and fragility fractures….