Every year, IOF leads a World Osteoporosis Day (WOD) campaign that brings together bone health advocates around the world to generate momentum for action on bone health and osteoporosis and fragility fracture prevention. 

This year, under the banner ‘Build Better Bones’, the WOD 2023 campaign has been effective in boosting awareness of bone-healthy lifestyles for people of all ages. IOF proudly launched the Build Better Bones platform in four new languages, making the website accessible to people in 150 countries. In addition, the findings of a five-country survey among women aged 60 and over were announced, revealing that fragility fractures affect almost half of the women surveyed, while at the same time post-fracture osteoporosis treatment is sub-optimal, and bone health was too often neglected during medical check-ups. 

A feature article ‘Top 10 solutions to reduce the global burden of fragility fractures’ outlined the key steps that national health authorities must take to reduce the growing epidemic of broken bones that affects all regions of the world affected by population aging. In the article, IOF President Cyrus Cooper stated: 

“Against the backdrop of World Osteoporosis Day, I strongly urge all health authorities to make osteoporosis and fracture prevention a healthcare priority. We must address this paradox: an explosion of fragility fractures as populations age, versus an unacceptable osteoporosis treatment gap that leads to immense human and socioeconomic costs... we absolutely must do better...”

Secondary fracture prevention was a strong focus of the campaign, with social media outreach drawing attention to the need for the identification of patients and post-fracture treatment targeted to radiologists, orthopaedists, and healthcare authorities. Fracture Liaison Services within the Capture the Fracture^® network were encouraged to take part in WOD outreach, and many submitted information about their events via the WOD website. 

A global campaign with broad outreach

It was very gratifying to see that the World Osteoporosis Day website, the WOD marketing toolkit, and IOF’s multi-language graphic resources were widely used, not just by IOF member societies, but by medical organizations, government health departments, and hospitals around the world. Some of the metrics that illustrate this year’s World Osteoporosis Day outreach and impact:

• Close to 17,000 resources downloaded, including multi-language WOD posters, infographics, toolkit, WOD quiz, and the new Essential Caregiver Tips for Osteoporosis Support brochure
• 158,000 visits to World Osteoporosis Day website
• 90 social media posts issued by IOF
• 246 Events or Campaigns reported in 48 countries
• 117 Events or Campaigns reported by IOF member societies

IOF warmly thanks all those who participated in this important campaign, and the many member societies whose commitment and hard work was reflected in their national campaign efforts - together, as a community, the IOF network has inspired people all over the world to 'Build Better Bones'!  We also thank the industry global partners who helped to support the campaign through their unrestricted support: Amgen, Sunsweet, and Zuellig Pharma. 

Below is a picture gallery of only a few of the events: