Validation of an osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Vietnamese postmenopausal women and men over 50 years

The aim of this study was to validate the effectiveness of the osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) in the screening and diagnosis of osteoporosis in men aged over 50 years and postmenopausal women in the northern Vietnam population.

This study included 8077 participants (7044 postmenopausal women and 1033 men aged over 50) who attended health examinations at the National Institute of Nutrition, Vietnam, from 2010-2019. Osteoporosis is defined by a T-score ≤ -2.5 at the femoral neck, total hip, or L1-L4. OSTA scores were assessed for identifying osteoporosis via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The optimal cut-off points, sensitivity, specificity, and areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) were determined.

The study showed that the prevalence of osteoporosis was 13.4% in men and 25.5% in women. In women, a higher BMI and OSTA scores decreased the OR of osteoporosis (all p-values < 0.001). In men, a higher BMI decreased the OR of osteoporosis (p-value < 0.001). The results showed that the OSTA value was -1 which had a sensitivity of over 70% in both men and women. The OSTA value was -4 which had a sensitivity of over 90% and specificity of over 80% in both men and women. The optimal OSTA value was -3 which had a sensitivity of over 90% and a specificity of over 80% in both men and women.

The OSTA might be a simple tool for the screening and diagnosis of osteoporosis in Vietnamese postmenopausal women and men aged over 50 years.