Bone Tests Cost-Effective for Elderly Men

Younger men with prior fracture could also benefit, study finds.

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, August 7, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Bone-density tests for osteoporosis are routine for older women, but a new study finds they might be cost-effective for certain groups of men over 65, too.

One of the first quality assessments of the screenings' costs and benefits for males finds that all men over 80 could benefit from a test, as well as men aged 65 or older who've already suffered a bone fracture.

"The amount of money that you have to spend, compared to the quality of life that you save, is a reasonably good deal for society for these subsets of men," said lead researcher Dr. John Schousboe, of Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis.

His team published its findings in the Aug. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Experts say the American public has long misconceived of osteoporosis as only a threat to women.

"The current data indicate that one in four Caucasian men will suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture at some point in his lifetime, compared to about one in two women," said Dr. Felicia Cosman, associate professor of medicine at Columbia University, and an osteoporosis specialist at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, N.Y.

"So, it's half as common [in men], but obviously it's still very common," said Cosman, who was not involved in the study.

She noted that fracture is not only disabling for older Americans, it can be deadly. "We know that up to 20 percent of people will actually die in the year following their hip fracture," Cosman said. "That's due to a combination of factors related to the surgery, related to immobilization of being in the hospital, of acute complications of the fracture itself -- pulmonary embolism, for example."

In fact, men are more likely to die from fracture-linked complications than women, experts say. And yet no major medical association has come out and advocated regular bone-density testing for older men. "The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force and its counterpart in Canada have been very silent on this -- they have just not seen the kind of data that would persuade them," Schousboe said.