Effectiveness of Screening for Osteoporosis by Bone Density Measurement for the Prevention of Fractures: a Review of the Evidence

To review evidence on the benefits of screening women and men for osteoporosis, a Pub Med search was performed in English papers published between 1990 and 2002. We used data from a cohort study to estimate risk of fracture from bone mineral density. Bone mineral density measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) can predict bone fracture among elderly women, peri- and early post-menopausal women, and elderly men. It is recommended that all white women older than 65 years be screened routinely for osteoporosis. We suggest that Japanese elderly women should receive BMD measurements as a screening, but we have still issues to be solved including age from when the screening should be started, methods, and how to treat the women found to have osteoporosis at the screening. For peri- and postmenopausal women and elderly men, it might be beneficial to measure BMD as a screening and start treatment for those patients found to have osteoporosis. However, incidence of fractures for these people is lower than that for elderly women. One bone mass measurement can predict bone fracture risk for as long as over 10 years or more, but predictive ability of BMD decreases with time. Therefore, cost effectiveness needs to be reviewed to determine the benefits of screening among peri-menopausal women and men. Although bone assessment by quantitative ultra sound (QUS) method by ultrasound can also predict future fractures, only a relatively small number of longitudinal studies have been conducted in the Western countries, and there is no established evidence by means of longitudinal studies among Japanese. It is necessary in Japan to seek such evidence, however, since this method is widely used for an osteoporosis examinations.