Prevalence of Fractures in People over 50 Years of Age with Osteoporosis in Colombia

OBJECTIVES: To describe the frequency of bone fractures in adults 50 years of age or older with osteoporosis in Colombia, based on data from the official Ministry of Health national registry (SISPRO).

METHODS: Using data collected between 2017 and 2021, we extracted the frequency of bone fractures by anatomic location, patient age and gender, both in people with and without osteoporosis, and estimated incidence rate and prevalence ratios (PR).

RESULTS: A total of 302,862 patients were diagnosed with osteoporosis (females 278,902, 92.1%), and 64,472 (23.1%) of them presented at least one fracture during the period. Fractures were more common in males (6,737, 28.1% of all osteoporosis patients) than in females (57,735 20.7%). The most common fractures in males were hip (902, 13.4%), lumbar vertebrae (842, 12.5%), ribs (648, 9.6%) and forearm (538, 8.0%). In females, forearm was the most common (11,001, accounting for 19.1% of all fractures), followed by hip (6,885, 11.9%), lumbar vertebrae (4.813, 8.3%) and thoracic vertebrae (2.701, 4.7%). When compared with osteoporosis-free population, the highest PR in the overall osteoporosis population were 17.5 for thoracic vertebrae, 14.4 for lumbar vertebrae, 4.1 for hips, 4.1 for ribs, 4.0 for femur (except hip), 3.5 for sternum, and 3.3 for humerus. PR was higher than 1.5 for every anatomic site.

CONCLUSIONS: Both frequency and anatomic location of bone fractures differ in males and females with osteoporosis. Forearm fractures are the most common, particularly in females. The relative risk (as expressed by the PR) increases at least 50% for every anatomic site, is more than ten-fold for lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, but is also high (four-fold) for hip and rib fractures.