On World Osteoporosis Day (WOD), 20 Oct, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and its 240 national member societies globally are raising awareness of bone health and osteoporosis prevention. With a call to Love Your Bones – Protect your future, the Day will remind the public that maintaining strong, healthy bones is the key to an active and independent future.

Marking World Osteoporosis Day allows the musculoskeletal disease community to make some noise about a neglected disease. Unlike a patient with high blood pressure who would normally receive treatment to protect against possible cardiovascular events, only a minority of patients with osteoporosis will be diagnosed and receive treatment to protect against potentially devastating, life-changing and even life-threatening fractures.

Worldwide, fractures due to osteoporosis affect one in three women, and one in five men, ages 50 or over.

Here are some key facts:

• The impact of fragility fractures on health and quality of life is too often underestimated. Hip fractures are particularly life-threatening, and invariably result in loss of function and independence among survivors. In women, osteoporosis accounts for more days in hospital than breast cancer, myocardial infarction, diabetes and other diseases.
• With populations ageing, osteoporotic hip fractures are expected to increase by 310% in men and 240% in women from 1990 to 2050.
• Despite widely available diagnostic tools and effective medications, osteoporosis too often remains undiagnosed and untreated.

As well as sharing the many multi-language resources available on the WOD website, IOF invites you to sign the IOF Global Patient Charter in support of patient rights. This initiative, endorsed by 47 national societies, urges health authorities to provide the framework for improved patient care.

IOF is also publishing an important new resource. The ‘IOF Compendium of Osteoporosis’ will provide an authoritative reference that documents in one comprehensive publication the key facts about osteoporosis and the prevalence, human- and cost-burden of osteoporotic fractures. Most importantly, it provides an eight-point blueprint for action to tackle the impending epidemic of fractures in ageing populations.

Join us on #WorldOsteoporosisDay to call for action!

Sign the IOF Global Patient Charter