Abstract
Osteoporosis can significantly impact on the risk of developing a fracture. Thus, fragility fractures represent a challenge for health professionals and decision makers of the twenty-first century. The aim of this work is to review the literature concerning osteoporotic fractures in Italy in terms of incidence, rate of hospitalization, relative risk of a new fragility fracture, and costs for the national health system. It was estimated that the costs of treating proximal femur fragility fractures in 2002 summed up to 1 billion Euros. The number of fragility fractures in Italy was calculated as follows: 91.494 hip fractures, 61.009 clinical vertebral fractures, 57.401 humeral fragility fractures, and 94.045 forearm/wrist fragility fractures. The incidence of fragility fractures in Italy is very high, and osteoporosis is the leading cause of morbidity in the Italian population.
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Ratti, C., Vulcano, E., La Barbera, G. et al. The incidence of fragility fractures in Italy. Aging Clin Exp Res 25 (Suppl 1), 13–14 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-013-0071-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-013-0071-4