Bone loss screening can be less frequent, study finds

From CBC News:
Elderly men and women are at high risk of hip fracture due to bone loss, say researchers, but given rates of bone loss, screening can occur as infrequently as every five years.

Bone loss can lead to osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become brittle and more prone to fracture.

The study, which tracked 9,423 participants between the ages of 25 and 85, found bone loss among women aged 50 to 54, which data showed had the most pronounced bone loss of all age groups, was 1.3 per cent.

According to the researchers, this decrease is within the margin or error of most bone densitometry machines, meaning that the loss is not as significant as once thought.

"The extent of the bone loss that we observed suggests that repeat measurements of bone density could be delayed to intervals of up to five years in the absence of other risk factors," they write. ...more