Poor Outcomes In Seniors Are Related To Fracture Type And Underlying Health!

Age-related fractures, particularly hip, vertebral, distal forearm, and humerus fractures, pose a serious public health concern for the elderly and have the potential to render them bedridden.

Worldwide, there are considerable regional differences in the prevalence of osteoporotic fractures. The Western population reports an increase in hip fractures over the second half of the twentieth century, which was followed by a stabilization or decline in the following two decades.

What Is Osteoporosis? Risk Factors

Osteoporosis is still on the rise among developing countries, particularly in Asia. Given that it is impacting a very important population, public health policies must give this case top priority and take the risk factor into account. 

Initially, it was defined to be due to lower bone mass and micro degradation of bone tissue. But in the middle of the 1990s, World Health Organisation (WHO) established a working group to develop an operational definition of osteoporosis that could be used to provide a standardized definition for the epidemiological issues. And along time, there have been significant changes in how this fragile bone and fractures were defined.

Another study Global Burden of Disease showed that musculoskeletal disease has a significant impact on populations all over the world. The proportion of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) related to musculoskeletal illnesses increased by 17.7% between 2005 and 2013. “Low back pain”, “neck pain”, “other musculoskeletal”, and “osteoarthritis” came in first fourth, tenth, and thirteenth place in the WHO rankings of the causes of years lived with disability globally in 2013.

Osteoporotic Fractures

Osteoporotic fractures were a substantial contributor to both the “other musculoskeletal” and “back pain” categories. The 2004 US Surgeon General’s Report estimates that 10 million Americans over 50 are thought to have osteoporosis, which causes 1.5 million fragility fractures annually and affects an additional 34 million people.

Even when osteoporosis is having a bigger impact, the actual cause of the fragility is not known. The researchers have discovered that there are numerous elements, including genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, that are creating the fragility.

In a survey conducted the researcher has come to the result that Black people in the USA are more prone to hip fracture than Africans showing the environmental factor that causes the fragility.

Another survey conducted among Black people and Caucasians showed that Blacks have a lower probability of fractures compared to others, which was a genetic factor, that may go to a certain extent to define the fragility.

Risk Factors Related To Osteoporosis

The lifestyle risk factors related to osteoporosis are, low BMI, low bone mineral density, calcium deficiency, early menopause, smoking, alcohol use, low levels of physical activity, etc.

However, these factors do not account for variations in risk among nations. Socioeconomic influence is believed to play a significant role in the decline in physical activity and level of calcium consumption.

However, within nations, both the USA and the UK show evidence that having a better socioeconomic position may be protective against hip fractures. While low calcium intake is an independent risk factor for osteoporosis, high calcium intake countries tend to have higher hip fracture chances.

It is still unclear which general factors are directly responsible for the variation in fracture risk around the world. Also, findings that show ethnic variations also contribute to bone resistance to fracture rates.

More importantly, research is being done globally to demonstrate the economic sustainability and clinical efficacy of case-finding and risk-assessment techniques for osteoporosis.

Such measures should be developed as a direct result of the significant financial burden that osteoporosis-related fractures have on individuals, healthcare systems, and societies.

Over the past three decades, osteoporosis has shifted from being viewed as an inevitable by-product of aging to a disorder that is easily identified and for which we have a wide range of effective pharmacological treatments.