The potential effect on hip fracture incidence of mass screening for osteoporosis

With ageing of the Australian population, treatment of osteoporosis-related hip fractures will impose an increasing burden on the healthcare system. B ased on current age-adjusted hip fracture incidence and population projecti ons for New South Wales, we estimated a 90% increase in hip fractures by th e year 2021. contributing significantly to this increase will be the number of men reaching the high risk age group for osteoporotic hip fractures. A suggested solution - screening and appropriate therapy for individuals at h igh risk of osteoporosis may have only a modest impact. Our calculations sh ow that, even with optimistic screening and therapy compliance rates, hip f ractures could still increase by over 50%. Other approaches need to be furt her explored.