Women with more delicate bone structure and older patients are prone to osteoporosis, a condition that affects the bones, causing them to become weak and fragile and more likely to break.
According to some figures, some 200,000 Croatians are affected with osteoporosis, and 400,000 have low bone mineral density.
Failure to treat osteoporosis may lead to fractures, with 15-16% of those fractures being life-threatening as they often result in complications that modern medicine cannot treat, Giljevic told the conference.
Two thirds of those suffering from this medical condition are women in menopause, and a third are men who have insufficient amounts of calcium and Vitamin D.
Giljevic warned that this disease should be considered as an issue for all of society as it affects the lives of their families because patients with osteoporosis are less mobile.