Johns Hopkins Health Alert
Research on Osteoporosis Screening
This Health Alert is intended for readers interested in learning about the prevention, diagnosis, and management of osteoporosis.
A recent report indicates that women who are at the highest risk for osteoporosis are the least likely to get bone density tests.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that all women age 65 and older get screened for osteoporosis. In addition, postmenopausal women who are under age 65 but who 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 for osteoporosis. Although widespread screening of premenopausal and perimenopausal women is not generally recommended, it might be appropriate depending on your individual health profile.
Now an article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Volume 54, page 485) reports that those women who most need bone density testing to determine whether they have osteoporosis are the least likely to be tested.
Researchers analyzed Medicare records to see whether older women are more or less likely to have bone density testing. Among nearly 44,000 women ages 65-90, they found, 27% of those in the youngest age group (66-70) had the test. Only 25.6% of women age 71-75 and less than 10% of those older than age 75 had bone density tests for osteoporosis. Since the women were not interviewed, the researchers could not determine exactly why older women failed to get the test.
Some possible reasons include doctors not realizing the importance of bone density testing or not being aware that at age 80 most women can expect to live another nine years and that osteoporosis treatment can reduce the risk of having a fracture even in adults of advanced age. Perhaps some women did not realize that they are at increasing risk or mistakenly believed that osteoporosis is an inevitable part of aging.