Australian & New Zealand Fragility Fracture Registry Annual Report 2025

The Australian & New Zealand Fragility Fracture Registry (ANZFFR) is delighted to share our second annual report.

Summary

• Over 20,000 New Zealanders suffer a fragility fracture – that is, a fracture after a low impact injury such as a fall – every year, and this is predicted to rise rapidly as the population ages.

• People with fragility fractures and other fall injuries spent over 300,000 bed-days in hospital, equivalent to all of Christchurch Hospital being fully occupied for the entire year.

• Fragility fractures are preventable with medical treatment and/or strength and balance training.

• Effective intervention reduces fracture risk by 30-40%, potentially saving over 8,000 people a year from the pain and disability of a fragility fracture.

• ANZFFR is a nationwide quality improvement programme targeting people who have a fragility fracture with the aim of preventing any further fractures – “Make the first fracture the last”.

• ANZFFR works with Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) nationwide to deliver effective fracture prevention advice and recommendations on medical treatment.

• The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) funds ANZFFR and most FLS as part of its Injury Prevention programme

• Thanks to ACC support, FLS now covers 98% of the NZ population and ANZFFR has grown faster than almost any other fracture registry worldwide.

• By contrast, the Australian arm of ANZFFR, which started at the same time but has no equivalent of ACC funding, is reaching less than 5% of their population.

• This year’s report has the first, tentative evidence that the FLS/ANZFFR project is beginning to reduce fracture rates in people taking part.

• It is still early days, but ANZFFR is seen as a success story by international experts.

The ultimate goal of the ANZFFR is to use data to improve health system performance and maximise outcomes for people with fragility fractures by improving secondary fracture prevention, reducing rates of further fragility fractures and their associated morbidity and mortality. This will be achieved by:

• Evaluating performance against the Clinical Standards for Fracture Liaison Services in New Zealand, published in December 2021, www.osteoporosis.org.nz.

• Preventing future fragility fractures by monitoring secondary prevention interventions.

• Standardising care across Australia and New Zealand by addressing barriers to the use of the best available evidence.

• Providing publicly available information so that patients can be reassured they receive the standard of care they need after a fragility fracture.

• Providing data for research questions or projects, nationally and internationally, as required.

The 2025 report describes the work of FLS nationwide in providing expert fracture prevention advice to over 15,000 people who had a fracture between 1st July 2023 and 30th June 2024 then were followed up 16 weeks after their fracture. It also reports outcomes after one year for the 11,600 people recruited into the Registry in the year before.

In its second year, the Registry in New Zealand has reached more people and helped FLS to deliver more fracture prevention advice than in Year 1. Without ACC support and dedicated leadership from Osteoporosis New Zealand, this would not be happening.

For full ANZFFR 2025 report, visit: www.fragilityfracture.co.nz/www.fragilityfracture.com.au.

© Scoop Media