Osteoporosis--diagnosis and treatment in a general practice population

Osteoporosis may be underdiagnosed and undertreated. General practitioners are best placed to redress this.

The research group invited all GPs in Bendigo (Victoria) (60) to attend an educational evening about osteoporosis, and also to engage in subsequent research involving data extraction from their electronic medical records for 2003. Twenty-three GPs accepted the invitation to participate. The research group calculated the proportion of patients with osteoporosis recorded as a diagnosis in their medical record, and compared them with national prevalence estimates based on radiological diagnosis.

The research group assessed 29 356 patient records of the 23 participating GPs, identifying 593 cases of osteoporosis. In patients aged over 59 years, osteoporosis was diagnosed in 12.6% of women and 3.8% of men. Of identified cases, 53.4% were prescribed antiresorptive drugs.

The occurrence of a diagnosis of osteoporosis was well below radiologically estimated prevalence. Implementation of learning opportunities designed to improve GP recognition and treatment of osteoporosis could be beneficial. Electronic medical records can provide useful research data with privacy protected.