The national cost of acute care of hip fractures associated with osteoporosis.

During 1976, the median cost of the direct medical care for a fracture of the proximal femur related to osteoporosis in Rochester, Minnesota, was $5,644. Age- and sex-specific incidences for this fracture were determined for a 10-year period in the same population. When these data are applied to the United States population, it can be estimated that osteoporosis leads to over 150,000 hip fractures annually, with a short-term direct cost in excess of one billion dollars.