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I would like to comment on the work of Stafford et al¹ on national trends in osteoporosis. Many consider osteoporosis to be exclusively a woman’s disease. However, 2 million men in the United States have osteoporosis (compared with 8 million women). Millions more men and women have low bone density, placing them at risk for the disease.²

My concern is therefore that 91% to 96% of the patients mentioned by Stafford et al¹ were women and 70% to 80% were older than 65 years. The prevalence of osteoporosis based on bone density at the femoral neck was found to the between 18% and 28% in women and 22% in men older than 50 years. Fractures are the most serious consequence of osteoporosis. In general, it is agreed that the lifetime risk of osteoporotic fracture in men is around one third of that in women (the lifetime risk of a hip . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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National Trends in Osteoporosis Visits and Osteoporosis Treatment, 1988-2003
Randall S. Stafford, Rebecca L. Drieling, and Adam L. Hersh
Arch Intern Med. 2004;164(14):1525-1530.
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