Application of Osteorisk to postmenopausal patients with osteoporosis.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Identification of women at risk of bone fracture is becoming less dependent on evaluating bone mineral density through placing greater value on clinical risk factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the Osteorisk clinical tool for identifying Brazilian postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, compared with bone densitometry. DESIGN AND SETTING Cross-sectional observational study at Faculdade de Medicina do ABC. METHOD Information on 812 postmenopausal osteoporotic women was retrospectively evaluated from medical records. The women were divided into the age groups 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and over 80 years. The results from the Osteorisk clinical tool, which uses only age and weight, were compared with bone densitometry T-scores. RESULTS There were significant correlations between the results from the Osteorisk clinical tool and from bone densitometry, in relation to the lumbar spine (P = 0.027) and hip (P < 0.001), thus showing a non-arbitrary relationship. The overall sensitivity of Osteorisk for identifying women with "high risk of osteoporosis" was 86.5%, and it was higher for hip osteoporosis alone (97.2%) than for lumbar spine osteoporosis (85.8%). The sensitivity was better among older women. CONCLUSION Osteorisk seems to present good sensitivity for identifying postmenopausal women at risk of osteoporosis. It should be used when bone densitometry is not easily available or as a means of selecting individuals for referral for bone densitometry.