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Related Experiment Videos

Bone mineral density testing in social context.

A Kazanjian1, C J Green, K Bassett

  • 1University of British Columbia.

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
|January 25, 2000
PubMed
Summary

Bone mineral density (BMD) testing is increasingly used for women despite lacking fracture risk prediction validity. Sociological factors, including the medicalization of aging and fear of disability, drive this trend, not evidence.

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Area of Science:

  • Sociology of Medicine
  • Women's Health
  • Medical Technology Assessment

Background:

  • Bone mineral density (BMD) testing utilization is rising among healthy women.
  • This increase persists despite evidence questioning its validity for fracture risk prediction.
  • Sociological and political science literature offers insights into technology adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explain the expanding utilization of bone mineral density (BMD) testing in women.
  • To critically examine technologies related to women and aging using feminist and cross-cultural analysis.
  • To investigate the societal and cultural factors influencing BMD testing adoption.

Main Methods:

  • Interdisciplinary literature review drawing from sociology and political science.
Keywords:
Health Care and Public Health

Related Experiment Videos

  • Application of feminist analysis to understand gendered aspects of aging and technology.
  • Cross-cultural analysis to examine societal trends influencing medical practices.

    • Main Results:

    • BMD testing is marketed by leveraging cultural trends: the medical model of the aging female body and fear of aging-related disability.
    • A feedback loop between popular and scientific knowledge medicalizes the aging female body, transforming a risk factor (low BMD) into a disease (osteoporosis).
    • This medicalization narrows the definition of 'normal' aging, increasing demand for diagnostic technologies irrespective of evidence.

    Conclusions:

    • The increased use of BMD testing is driven by societal factors and marketing, not solely by clinical evidence for fracture prediction.
    • The medicalization of aging and fear of disability contribute to the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of conditions like osteoporosis.
    • Unexamined power relations and private interests likely fuel the diffusion of diagnostic technologies for women's aging.