Fragility Fractures—Clinician Infographic

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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

This bar graph shows screening for fragility fractures over 25 years. The Y axis shows clinician hours. The X axis shows screening tools

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

 How was this calculated?