The burden of osteoporosis in Turkey: a scorecard and economic model

The burden of osteoporosis in Turkey is not well characterized. Our results indicate that osteoporosis is undertreated in Turkey with 1.35 million fractures predicted to occur from 2019 to 2023 at an associated cost of 2.42 billion USD. Interventions are needed to close the treatment gap and minimize the economic burden.

The number of osteoporotic fractures is expected to increase as populations age, posing a major risk to health systems and patients. We created a scorecard summarizing the burden of disease, policy framework, service provision, and service uptake for osteoporosis in Turkey and estimated the economic burden of osteoporotic fractures in Turkey.

A systematic review of osteoporosis in Turkey was performed. Gaps in the literature were supplemented by surveys with osteoporosis experts. The findings were used to populate a scorecard and burden of illness model focused on adults aged 50 to 89 years in Turkey. The scorecard provided a visual representation of osteoporosis burden and management using a traffic light color coding system. The model quantified osteoporosis-related fracture costs (2019 USD) including hospitalizations, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry testing, hip fracture surgery, prescription drugs, and patient productivity losses.

The scorecard showed that osteoporosis is undertreated in Turkey. Despite timely access to diagnosis, > 75% of high-risk patients fail to initiate on appropriate therapies. In 2019, the economic model predicted that 255,183 osteoporosis-related fractures would occur in Turkey with an associated annual cost of approximately 455 million USD and an average burden per 1000 at risk of 23,987 USD. The cumulative 5-year cost of 1,354,817 fractures was 2.42 billion USD.

Approximately 1.35 million fragility fractures are predicted to occur in Turkey during the next 5 years with costs of 2.42 billion USD. Closing the treatment gap will be imperative for preventing these fractures and minimizing the burden of osteoporosis in Turkey.