The treatment of osteopenia in Asian women: a new approach

Compare dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan results to the World Health Organization FRAX™ tool 10-year projected hip fracture risk of immigrant Vietnamese women at antiresorptive medication therapy initiation and to identify whether the current and/or future treatment of patients with osteopenia would change based on the FRAX tool results.

Retrospective study involving a convenience sample of 57 postmenopausal,Vietnamese women concerning the variables age, height, weight, smoking, alcohol use, glucocorticoid use, personal and family fracture history, presence of secondary osteoporosis, and recent DEXA-scan T score. The data were then entered into FRAX and 10-year fracture risk for hip calculated.

Of the 18 subjects deemed osteopenic by DEXA scan and previously started on an antiresorptive agent, nine would not have been initiated had the FRAX tool been available at the time.

The FRAX tool was easy to use and applicable in day-to-day care of patients and significantly increases the clinician's ability to make evidence-based decisions.