Extract
The National Osteoporosis Foundation has estimated that more than 100
million people worldwide are at risk for the development of fragility
fractures secondary to osteoporosis. In the United States, the lifetime risk
of fractures of the spine, hip, and distal part of the radius is up to 40% for
women and 13% for men over the age of fifty years. This leads to an estimated
700,000 osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures each year, of which
more than one-third become chronically
painful1. Vertebral
compression fractures occur in 20% of people over the age of seventy years and
in 16% of postmenopausal
women2. Not
surprisingly, vertebral compression fractures account for a large portion of
the more than $17 billion of annual direct costs associated with osteoporotic
fractures in the United
States3.