Advice given to patients with fractures
BMJ 1999; 318 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7199.1698 (Published 19 June 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;318:1698Drug treatments that reduce fracture rate are underused after vertebral fractures
- David J Torgerson, Senior research fellow (djt6@york.ac.uk),
- Paul Dolan, Senior lecturer in economics
- Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York YO10 5DD
- Sheffield Health Economics Group and Department of Economics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DA
- Department of Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ
EDITOR—We recently undertook a cost analysis of osteoporosis, which showed that the disease is probably more costly than earlier estimates quoted by Pal suggested.1 We estimated that the total annual cost of fractures in a United Kingdom population is around £940 million, with hip fractures costing roughly £12 000 each.2 More importantly, using data from the general practice research database, like Pal we found little evidence that patients who had sustained a fracture were being offered treatment.3 The table (taken from our paper) summarises our results.
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Number of patients receiving at least one prescription for drug that reduces fracture rate (HRT, calcium, vitamin D, bisphosphonate) in years before and after hip, wrist, or …
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