Osteoporosis Screenings Also Important For Young, Post-Menopausal Women

Osteoporsis screenings can help determine if a women's dealing with any bone fractures. Yet recent findings show that many young, post-menopausal women are not receiving this potentially crucial screening. 

"If we want to prevent fractures, we need tools that help us accurately predict who will suffer these osteoporotic injuries so that we can target these at-risk people for preventive measures," said lead study author Dr. Carolyn Crandall, professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, in a news release. "Our results suggest that our current guidelines for screening in younger post-menopausal women do not accurately identify who will suffer a fracture."

As it stands, the United States Preventive Servies Task Force (USPSTF) suggests that all women at and over the age of 65 get their bone mineral density levels checked. For young, post-menopualsal women between 50 and 64, the guidelines further recommend that those who have a 10-year risk of hip, vertebral, humeres and wrisk fracture of 9.3 percent or greater be screened.

To test effectiveness, researchers analyzed data on 62,492 postmenopuasal women between the ages of 50 and 64 who had taken from the Women's Health Initiative. Findings revealed that about 85 percent of them were white, nine percent were black and four percent were Hispanic.

The team also found that USPSTF screening method helped to predict only about 25.8 percent of the women at risk of suffering from a bone fracture in 10 years.
The effectiveness of other screening tools was also examined. Researchers found that these options were not any more effective in predicting. at-risk women that should be screened. The OSA accurately predicted risk for 39.8 percent of the women and the SCORE captured the risk for 38.6 percent.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.