Osteoporosis is frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated in men before and even after they have experienced a fracture, according to research presented at ACR Convergence 2020 on Saturday.
Dr Jeffrey Curtis
"This is an important public health concern," as fractures contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality, said Jeffrey Curtis, MD, MS, MPH, professor of medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Men are often overlooked, he said, "because it's misconstrued as a disease that mainly, if not only, affects Caucasian women," despite the fact that 20%-25% of fractures occur in men.
Emerging evidence suggests that men who have bone fractures have worse outcomes than women, Curtis said.
Guidelines Lacking
Consistent guidelines for osteoporosis screening among men are also lacking, leading to ambiguity and increased disease burden.
Researchers studied records for a 5% random sample of male Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries (n = 9876) at least 65 years old with a closed fragility fracture between January 2010 and September 2014. Average age for the men with fractures was 77.9 years, and the most common sites of the fracture were the spine, hip, and ankle.
They looked back to see whether these men had been effectively screened and treated.
Very few had.
