Fragility Fractures—Clinician Infographic
Screening to prevent fragility fractures
How much time does it take?
We recommend risk assessment-first (FRAX):
- Bone mineral density (BMD) only for women 65+ who know their fracture risk and show interest in preventive treatment
✔ Takes less time
✔ Reduces unnecessary testing
✔ Shared decision-making
We do not recommend BMD testing-first for women or men
Assume:
- A practice of 1200 patients followed over 25 years
- 600 aged 50+ and 300 aged 65+
- ½ are women and ½ are men
- Screening is estimated to age 85 years
- Rescreening occurs every 2-5 years for BMD-first; every 8 years for risk assessment-first
Context:
- No trials show benefit of screening men of any age or women ≤65
- Rescreening women within 8 years does not appear useful
Screening over 25 years
| Clinician hours | |
| Risk assessment-first | 58 |
| BMD first women 65+ | 112* |
| BMD first women and men 65+ | 214* |
| BMD first women and men <65 | Unable to estimate |
* No evidence this prevents more fractures
Your time as a clinician is valuable: do better for your patients in less time