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Aging and direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures

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Abstract

Introduction

This study estimated the direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures from a large claims database in Korea.

Materials and methods

We compared the medical costs of hip, vertebral, and wrist fractures between two age groups (50–64 years vs 65 years and older). We used a generalized linear model to investigate the drivers of osteoporotic fracture medical costs.

Results

Hip fractures had the highest costs, regardless of age, followed by vertebral and wrist. The cost of hip fracture was USD 7285 for those aged 65 years and over and USD 6589 for those aged 50–64 years. The length of hospital days was higher in hip fracture patients, regardless of age, followed by vertebral and wrist. As the number of hospitalizations increased, the medical cost increased by 33.0% (p < 0.0001). Patients older than 65 years who were hospitalized for a fracture had a longer total length of hospital stay, compared to patients aged 50–64, regardlessness of the site of the fracture. The cost of treating fractures among those 65 years and older increased by 31.8% compared to those 50–64 years old (p < 0.0001). The direct medical costs increased by 8.6% as the number of fractures increased (p = 0.041).

Conclusions

We identified that osteoporotic fracture-related medical costs and hospitalization days increased with age. Interventions are effective in reducing fracture risk the potential to yield substantial cost savings.

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Funding

This study was funded by Amgen Korea.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate school of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Eu Gene Kim

  2. Collge of Pharmacy, Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, South Korea

    Green Bae

  3. Mokwon University, Daejeon, South Korea

    Hye-Young Kwon

  4. Amgen Korea Ltd., Seoul, South Korea

    Hyowon Yang

Authors
  1. Eu Gene Kim
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  2. Green Bae
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  3. Hye-Young Kwon
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  4. Hyowon Yang
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Contributions

EK and HYK conceived the study design and were in charge of the analysis. EK, GB, and HYK drafted and revised the manuscript. HY interpreted the data and revised the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hye-Young Kwon.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests

EK, GB, and HYK have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interest in any commercial companies related to this study or article. HY is a full-time employee of Amgen. However, the authors had full control of the findings and the results presented without supervision or interference from the sponsors of the work.

Informed consent of ethical approval

No ethical approval was required because this study involved the retrospective analysis of dataset in which the data were properly anonymised.

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Kim, E.G., Bae, G., Kwon, HY. et al. Aging and direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures. J Bone Miner Metab 39, 589–597 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-020-01192-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-020-01192-0

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