Invest In Your Bones
Quality of Life: Why prevent the first fracture?
For many years IOF has lobbied for policy changes that "prevent the first fracture". IOF's new report, Quality of Life: Why prevent the first fracture, provides, for the first time in a popular publication, dramatic explanations of what happens after a person breaks a bone due to the "silent epidemic". Some conclusions from the report, written by Paul Lips, a member of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors:
Two out of three first vertebral fractures are not diagnosed.
Once a woman suffers a first vertebral fracture, there is a five-fold increase in the risk of developing a new vertebral fracture within one year.
One year after a hip fracture, one in four patients has died, one cannot walk, and two of the four can walk but with lower mobility than before the fracture.
In addition to relieving suffering, public health systems and insurance companies will save considerable money by preventing the first fracture.
