WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Susan Collins today announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a $100,000 grant to the University of Maine's Center on Aging to develop a National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Action Plan for post-menopausal women. Senator Collins, who is a member of the National Steering Committee on Women and Aging, played a critical role in securing the grant that was presented today to Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Leonard Kaye and Dr. Clifford Rosen. "I feel very strongly about the significance of this project and work being done by Doctors Kaye and Rosen," said Senator Collins. "Their work will help identify effective approaches to preventing osteoporosis and educating American woman about this devastating disease."
Osteoporosis is a debilitating loss of bone mass affecting approximately 10 million people in the United States, primarily women. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Osteoporosis and Related Bone Disease National Resource Center reports osteoporosis cost the U.S. economy $17 billion in 2001, or $47 million each day.
"This issue is of special importance to me because women residing in isolated regions of our nation, such as many parts of Maine, and minority groups are at particularly high risk of the devastating effects of osteoporosis."