Health
Osteoporosis increasingly affecting men
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 26, 2006
A growing number of men are developing osteoporosis, and the economic impact is and will be considerable, according to several studies presented at the International Osteoporosis Foundation's World Congress in Toronto this month.
"People are not really aware that this disease also occurs in men as well as women," said Rick Adachi, MD, professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He was an author on several papers at the meeting.
For example, one of his studies analyzing expenses related to osteoporosis in managed care found that men were responsible for 30% of the costs related to fragility fractures.
These expenses, however, are expected to grow, and other researchers are predicting the incidence of this disease among men will increase significantly over the next few decades because of the aging of the population. A study from Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals found that men currently experience about 595,000 osteoporotic fractures annually with a cost to the health care system of $4.1 billion. The authors of this paper project that the number of fractures will increase to 925,000 annually by 2025 with an estimated cost of $6.7 billion.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/06/26/hlbf0626.htm.
