About 20 percent of patients who were hospitalized with bone fractures last year had osteoporotic hip fractures, the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association said, advising people to ensure sufficient calcium intake and to exercise regularly to prevent osteoporosis.
Ministry of the Interior data show that people aged 65 and older made up 13.6 percent of the total population as of August and that the country is transitioning from an aged population toward a super-aged population, more than 20 percent of which is 65 or older, the association said.
As osteoporosis is most common in people older than 50 and the elderly population is growing rapidly, the association on Oct. 15 marked its 20th anniversary with an international conference in Taipei to discuss osteoporosis prevention and improvements to treatment.
National Health Insurance Administration Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) was invited to give a speech about osteoporosis care under the National Health Insurance (NHI) and Long-term Care Services Program 2.0.
Lee said NHI expenditure on orthopedic treatment has increased by 42 percent in the past 10 years and more than 1.39 million elderly people have sought orthopedic treatment, showing that enhancing osteoporosis prevention and treatment are important and urgent.
Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association chairman Wu Chih-hsing (吳至行), a physician at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, said the incidence rate of hip fracture in Taiwan is the ninth highest in the world and the highest in Asia, and NHI statistics showed that about 20 percent of hospitalizations for bone fractures last year were due to osteoporotic hip fracture.
The yearly mortality rate of osteoporotic hip fracture is about 20 percent, he said, adding that nearly 80 percent of patients will need medical equipment, caretakers or other assistance after they develop osteoporotic hip fractures, so the direct and indirect cost of osteoporosis is enormous: an estimated NT$7 billion (US$231 million) per year.
Wu said three obstacles to osteoporosis prevention are lack of awareness — as about 80 percent of patients first discover their bone density problems after experiencing symptoms; discontinuation of treatment — as about half of all patients discontinue treatment after three months and about 70 percent sustain bone fractures again; and lack of a comprehensive long-term care system to follow up on patients.
He advised people to ensure that they have sufficient intake of calcium, Vitamin D, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc, get sufficient sun exposure and exercise regularly to prevent osteoporosis.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS