Aging and direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures

Introduction This study estimated the direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures from a large claims database in Korea. Materials and methods We compared the medical costs of hip, vertebral, and wrist fractures between two age groups (50–64 years vs 65 years and older). We used a generalized linear model to investigate the drivers of osteoporotic fracture medical costs. Results Hip fractures had the highest costs, regardless of age, followed by vertebral and wrist. The cost of hip fracture was USD 7285 for those aged 65 years and over and USD 6589 for those aged 50–64 years. The length of hospital days was higher in hip fracture patients, regardless of age, followed by vertebral and wrist. As the number of hospitalizations increased, the medical cost increased by 33.0% ( p