Real-world effectiveness of osteoporosis screening in older Swedish women (SUPERB)

Older women diagnosed with osteoporosis and referred to their general practitioners (GPs) exhibited significantly higher osteoporosis treatment rates and a reduced fracture risk compared to non-osteoporotic women who were not referred to their GPs.

The objective of this study was to investigate treatment rates and fracture outcomes in older women, from a population-based study, 1) diagnosed with osteoporosis, with subsequent referral to their general practitioner (GP), 2) women without osteoporosis, without referral to their GP.

In total, 3028 women, 75-80 years old were included in the SUPERB cohort. At inclusion, 443 women were diagnosed with osteoporosis (bone mineral density (BMD) T-score ≤ -2.5) at the lumbar spine or hip, did not have current or recent osteoporosis treatment, and were referred to their GP for evaluation (referral group). The remaining 2585 women without osteoporosis composed the control group. Sensitivity analysis was performed on subsets of the original groups. Adjusted Cox regression (hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI)) analyses were performed to investigate the risk of incident fractures and the incidence of osteoporosis treatment.

Cox regression models, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol, glucocorticoid use, previous fracture, parent hip fracture, secondary osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and BMD at the femoral neck, revealed that the risk of major osteoporotic fracture was significantly lower (HR = 0.81, 95 % CI [0.67-0.99]) in the referral group than in the controls. Similarly, the risk of hip fracture (HR = 0.69, [0.48-0.98]) and any fracture (HR = 0.84, [0.70-1.00]) were lower in the referral group. During follow-up, there was a 5-fold increase (HR = 5.00, [4.39-5.74]) in the prescription of osteoporosis medication in the referral group compared to the control group.

Screening older women for osteoporosis and referring those with osteoporosis diagnosis was associated with substantially increased treatment rates and reduced risk of any fracture, MOF, and hip fracture, compared to non-osteoporotic women.