RESEARCH ARTICLE Expected lifetime number e

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground With a lifetime risk of 40 % to 50%, an osteoporotic frac-ture is one of the most likely negative health events in the remaining lifetime of a 50 year old woman [1]. The individual probability for a 50 year old woman of experi-encing an osteoporotic fracture is higher than the prob-ability of developing an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (4.1 % to 30.7 % [2] (depending on risk profile)) or breast cancer (around 11 % [3]). Studies have shown that a decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) is a strong predictor for fractures on dif-ferent sites of the human body [4-6]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) a person suffers from osteoporosis when the person’s BMD is at least 2.5 standard deviations lower (T≤−2.5) than the average BMD of healthy adults [7]. Clinically, osteoporosis is characterized ”by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to enhanced bon