Interventions to improve inpatient osteoporosis management following first osteoporotic fracture: the PREVENT project.

OBJECTIVES

To establish a protocol for the treatment of fragility fractures in the hospital setting based on treatment of osteoporosis.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

An intervention protocol was implemented in patients with fragility fractures based on (1) indicating the diagnosis of osteoporotic fracture in the summary of discharge; (2) "lifestyle recommendations"; and (3) therapy for osteoporosis. Thirty-one hospitals were involved and they were informed of the importance of protocol compliance. In the first phase, a retrospective study was conducted to establish the number of low-energy fractures treated and the percentage of them that had complied with the protocol (n = 887). Then, prospectively, the same data were collected for the patients managed for 1 year (n = 6,826) in three sections of 4-month intervals.

RESULTS

The percentage of compliance increased from 8.2 to 57.2% in the first point, from 12.6 to 42.4% in the second, and from 10.3 to 43.2% in the third.

CONCLUSION

The implementation of programs to improve osteoporosis treatment is very useful for ensuring adherence in the management of osteoporosis following admission due to fragility fracture.