[Postmenopausal osteoporosis in the Emilia-Romagna region. Extent of the problem].

BACKGROUND: The purposes of this paper are to summarise the epidemiological data concerning the frequency of postmenopausal osteoporosis and its related fractures in Emilia-Romagna, a province of northern Italy, and to determine the future impact of this disease. METHODS: To evaluate how many people suffer from postmenopausal osteoporosis it was decided to calculate the number of hospital admissions due to this disease or to its related fractures in postmenopausal women--included and excluded according to the ICD9-CM codes relative to the hospital discharges--during the years 1994 and 1995. RESULTS: The results show that incidence rates of these hospital admissions increase with age, as well as the number of osteoporotic fractures. Hip fractures, which represent a major problem due to their costs and consequences, are the more frequent osteoporotic fractures which need hospital admission, while it is possible that a large part of other fractures (which do not need hospitalisation or have been treated in private structures) has not been calculated. CONCLUSIONS: When projected to the population of women living in Emilia-Romagna in the future decade, also keeping the age-specific fracture rates constant, these data suggest that the occurrence of postmenopausal osteoporosis and of osteoporotic fractures will increase, with a dramatic escalation of economic and human costs. Finally, direct costs related to postmenopausal osteoporosis have been calculated for the decade 1995-2004.