This Health Alert is intended for readers interested in learning about the prevention, diagnosis, and management of osteoporosis.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that all women age 65 and older get screened for osteoporosis. In addition, post-menopausal women who are under age 65 but have additional risk factors for osteoporosis (such as use of corticosteroids or a family history of osteoporosis) or who have recently had a fracture should be screened. There are no official guidelines on when to screen men for osteoporosis, but some experts have suggested routine osteoporosis screening in some older men.
Routine testing and treatment for osteoporosis may indeed make sense for certain older men, according to a new study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 298, page 629).
Researchers used a computer program to estimate the risk of hip fracture for white males over age 65 -- the group of men with the highest risk of osteoporosis. They also estimated the direct medical costs and indirect costs, such as lost productivity, associated with an osteoporotic fracture in these men.
They found that it might be cost-effective to perform routine bone mineral density testing in men older than 65 years if they had had an earlier fracture and to test men over 80 regardless of their fracture history. Treatment with bisphosphonates, if needed, also would be cost-effective if the price of therapy were less than $500 per year.
Routine screening for osteoporosis is currently not recommended for older men in the United States. But if you have risk factors for osteoporosis (long-term steroid use; chronic disease that affects the kidneys, lungs, stomach or intestines and alters hormone levels; low testosterone level; smoking; drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, consuming too little calcium or getting insufficient physical exercise) talk to your doctor about whether you might be a candidate for bone mineral density testing and medication for osteoporosis prevention or treatment.
