Dramatic Rise Predicted in Osteoporosis-Related Fractures in Brazil

A new Audit report on fragility fractures, issued by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), predicts that Brazil will experience an explosion in the number of fragility fractures due to osteoporosis in the coming decades.

Currently, about 20 percent of Brazil’s population is 50 years of age or over and 4.3 percent is aged 70 or over. With average life expectancy projected to rise to 80 years in 2050, it is estimated that the total population will increase to 260 million. Around 37 percent will then be over 50 years of age, and 14 percent (around 36 million people) aged 70 years or over.

These projections serve as a dire warning to health authorities as well as to social institutions which care for the aged. In Brazil, roughly 153 to 343 hip fractures occur among every 100,000 people aged 50 and over. While today there are an estimated 121, 700 annual hip fractures, these numbers are predicted to increase by 16 percent in 2020, and by 32 percent in 2050.

“Given the future projections, osteoporosis and fragility fractures have become a health issue of immediate concern,” said Dr. Bruno Muzzi Camargos, president of the Associação Brasileira da Avaliação da Saúde Óssea e Osteometabolismo (ABrASSO). “We must implement nationwide measures for early prevention, while ensuring that people at risk-–and especially people who have already suffered a fracture-–are appropriately diagnosed and treated to prevent future fractures. This is the only way that we can slow the rising tide of costly fractures.”