ONLY two percent of local patients with osteoporosis receive proper treatment while about 75 percent of patients never go to hospital, said experts yesterday on the eve of World Osteoporosis Day.

Poor awareness and misunderstanding can result in bone deterioration and a serious impact on people's health and life quality, they said.

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. Anyone can suffer the disease, although it is more common in older women. If not prevented or if left untreated, it can progress painlessly and silently until a bone breaks. These broken bones occur typically in the hip, spine, and wrist.

"With a hip fracture, half of patients can suffer permanent disability and 25 percent of patients can die within two years due to various complications," said Dr Zhu Hanmin from Huadong Hospital and director of Shanghai Medical Association's osteoporosis branch. "Researchers found 15.6 percent of elderly men and 23.4 percent of elderly women in Shanghai's urban areas suffer fractures because of osteoporosis."

China's osteoporosis sufferers have quadrupled to about 88 million people in the past 30 years. There are 900,000 people with the condition in Shanghai. One-third of Chinese women over 50 years old have osteoporosis.

"Doctors and the public should raise awareness of osteoporosis, which can be confused with normal aging problems," Zhu said. "Poor understanding of the disease and its insignificant early symptoms result in most patients not going to hospital in time. A survey in the city found that four-fifths of the elderly with centrum fractures due to osteoporosis didn't go to hospital, while the rest just visited doctors because of back pain, without realizing they had the disease."

He said osteoporosis is a debilitating disease that can be prevented and treated. A bone mineral density test is the best way to check bone health.