Pharmaco-economic issues in the treatment of severe osteoporosis.

INTRODUCTION clinical guidelines recommend to identify and treat people at high risk of fracture. METHODS we have carried out a simulation concerning pharmaco-economic issues in the treatment of severe osteoporosis and particularly those people with previous femoral fragility fractures, assuming that only 13.1% of hip fractured patients had started a proper antifracture therapy, as shown by the analysis of the Tuscany regional database. RESULTS Annual costs sustained by the Italian healthcare system for treating hip fractured patients all over Italy have been estimated to range from 2 560 000 in year 2000 to 3 291 750 in year 2005, representing only 0,3% of the overall costs sustained because of hip fractures in Italy. CONCLUSIONS Sixty percent of the pharmacological costs can be considered as ineffective from a therapeutic point of view because patients were assuming their drugs only for 6 months. There is a need for specific codification of osteoporotic fragility fractures at hospital admissions and for implementing regional strategies aimed to reduce hip re-fractures by increasing the number of patients on treatment and incrementing adherence to treatment.