While osteoporosis does occur in men and younger women, the problem is overwhelmingly prevalent in postmenopausal women.
It is estimated that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 worldwide have osteoporosis. It is responsible for millions of fractures annually, mostly involving the lumbar vertebrae, hip, and wrist.
In the United States, osteoporosis causes a predisposition to more than 250,000 hip fractures yearly.
It is estimated that a 50-year-old white woman has a 17.5% lifetime risk of fracture of the proximal hip. The incidence of hip fractures increases each decade from age 60 to 90 for both women and men for all populations. The highest incidence is found among those men and women ages 80 or older.
An estimated 700,000 women have a first vertebral fracture each year. The lifetime risk of a clinically detected vertebral fracture is about 15% in a 50-year-old white woman. However, because symptoms are often overlooked or thought to be a normal part of getting older, it is believed that only about one-third of vertebral compression fractures are actually diagnosed.
Wrist fractures, (usually Colles fractures), are the third most common type of osteoporotic fracture. In the United States, the total annual number of Colles' fractures is about 250,000. The lifetime risk of sustaining a Colles' fracture is about 16% for white women. By the time women reach age 70, about 20% have had at least one wrist fracture.
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