Postmenopausal Women Benefit From Osteoporosis Screening

Dr. Wactawski-Wende and colleagues at the University of Buffalo recently studied postmenopausal women who had never been screened for osteoporosis to determine the number of women diagnosed with osteoporosis and whether they decided to take treatment.  All women had a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) test between 1997-2000.

A total of 945 women did not know what their bone density results would be and 36.4 percent had osteoporosis. Of those women diagnosed with osteoporosis, 72.7 percent discussed the results with a health care provider, and 56.0 percent started treatment after doing so. The factors associated with starting treatment were how low the t-score was, whether the woman had routine medical care more often than yearly, higher education and higher income, and whether the screening results were discussed with a gynecologist.

These findings suggest that many postmenopausal women are unaware of their bone density and could benefit from screening.  In this study, approximately half of the women with osteoporosis initiated treatment after screening. Disease severity, medical care frequency, education, income, and type of physician predicted treatment initiation.

Am J Epidemiol 2004;160:473-478