The high burden of osteoporosis in several European countries contrasts starkly with suboptimal osteoporosis care, provision of treatment, and treatment uptake, according to the results of a report recently published in the Archives of Osteoporosis.
The report reviews and describes the current burden of osteoporosis in each of the 27 countries of the European Union, as well as in the United Kingdom and Switzerland (EU27+2). The authors audit key metrics in the following four domains: disease burden, policy framework, treatment, and healthcare utilization.
Osteoporosis is one of the major healthcare burdens in Europe. It causes over 4 million fragility fractures per year and is associated with over 200,000 causally related deaths. The disease costs the healthcare systems of Europe in excess of €56 billion each year.
Osteoporosis is a complex disease that can be treated and managed in several ways. Improvements in medication and diagnostic techniques in the past 25 years have provided highly effective means of reducing the risk for osteoporotic fractures. However, research has shown significant heterogeneity in the different national approaches to managing the disease in Europe.
The current report is based on the most recent results of the Scorecard for Osteoporosis in Europe (SCOPE), which was created by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) in 2010.
