1. To screen or not to screen for osteoporosis amongst post-menopausal women with one prior osteoporotic fracture in Greece.
- Author
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Souliotis, Kyriakos, Golna, Christina, Golnas, Paul, Markakis, Ioannis-Anestis, and Makras, Polyzois
- Subjects
OSTEOPOROSIS diagnosis ,BONE fracture prevention ,OSTEOPOROSIS prevention ,MEDICAL screening ,MEDICAL care costs ,POSTMENOPAUSE - Abstract
Background: Screening and linkage to care (SLTC) for osteoporosis is suboptimal in several settings. In Greece, it is estimated that only up to 8.6% of postmenopausal women are SLTC for osteoporosis, despite having suffered a previous fracture. Aims: This study aims to estimate the impact of comprehensive screening on future fracture burden amongst post-menopausal women aged 50–74, with one prior osteoporotic fracture, in Greece. Methods: We developed a cohort stochastic model, based on published epidemiological and clinical data, to assess impact of screening on future fracture burden in two scenarios: a current, assuming an 8.6% background SLTC, and a completely hypothetical, assuming 100% SLTC. Results: Amongst a cohort of 50,000 post-menopausal women aged 50–74, with one prior osteoporotic fracture, applying the hypothetical versus the current scenario would result in a reduction in deaths (–0.6%) and fractures (–4.3%) over 10 years. The hypothetical scenario leads to greater reductions in costs associated with vertebral (–8.1%) and hip (–5.5%) fractures, followed by other non-vertebral (–3.0%) and forearm (–2.5%) fractures. In the hypothetical scenario, treatment initiations and total screenings increased almost tenfold versus the current scenario, at an estimated direct incremental cost of 27.83€ per woman per year in the cohort. Discussion: Our study adds to the existing evidence on the impact of screening to prevent fractures amongst post-menopausal women. Despite being based on a stochastic model, our study confirms findings most recently published in the literature. Conclusions: Our study models the positive public health impact of increasing SLTC levels amongst post-menopausal women with a prior osteoporotic fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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