RISK ASSESSMENT FOR OSTEOPOROSIS IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

Abstract

PURPOSE: Risk factors for osteoporotic fractures include parental history of hip fractures, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, low body weight and menopause. Postmenopausal women under 65 years with at least one risk factor should be evaluated with a risk assessment tool to decide if they need to undergo osteodensitometry. There is an evidence of a significantly greater sensitivity of the SCORE test for detection of osteoporosis in women with age between 50 to 64 years compared to the FRAX tool. METHODS: We conducted a survey to evaluate the risk of osteoporosis in 64 postmenopausal women using SCORE tool. The assessed women were with mean age of 50 years. A total score of more than 6 points is considered to determine a possible risk of osteoporosis. RESULTS: 50% of the women showed moderate risk and 25% of the women had very high risk for osteoporosis. 75% of all evaluated subjects were detected to need bone mineral density (BMD) assessment with a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study are evidence of the high sensitivity of the SCORE tool and of the significant prevalence of osteoporosis among Bulgarian postmenopausal women.