Screening for Osteoporosis

Purpose: To review evidence that screening for osteoporo-sis by measuring bone mass in postmenopausal women would reduce fracture incidence. Data Identification: An English-language literature search using MEDLINE (1966 to 1989), bibliographic reviews of book chapters and review articles, technology assessments of bone mass measurement, and other publications. Study Selection: We summarize prospective studies of fracture risk prediction done with widely used bone mass measurement techniques, and we document noncontrover-sial or peripheral points with recent papers and reviews. Data Extraction: Without osteoporosis screening trials, no quantitative analysis is possible. Instead, we assess the abi-lity of screening tests to measure bone mass and define fracture risk categories, the ability of risk categories t