The burden of osteoporosis: cost.

Osteoporotic fractures are generally assumed to be a major public health problem in the western world. Cost calculations are based primarily on hip fractures, which are easy to count since most require hospital admission and surgical intervention. The estimates of cost, which are $10-20 billion annually in the United States to $0.3 billion in England and Wales are therefore likely to be underestimates of the total cost of the disease. As populations age throughout the world, the costs worldwide can only increase, and estimates are staggering. Within 50 years the cost of hip fracture alone in the United States may exceed $240 billion. In some countries there appears also an age-specific increase in incidence that will only compound the problem. It is not clear to what extent therapeutic interventions can control the possible epidemic of fractures in the next century.