An evidence-informed strategy to prevent osteoporosis in Australia

An outline of the Building healthy bones throughout life white paper

Osteoporosis currently affects 1.2 million Australians, most of whom do not know they have the disease. Without intervention, this is expected to increase to 3 million by 2021 as a result of population ageing. There are also now 6.3 million Australians with osteopenia. General practitioners and their patients often overlook bone health and, as a result, osteoporosis is often not diagnosed until fragility fractures occur. There is also a lack of an accepted strategy for osteoporosis prevention in Australia. Currently, treatment is based on bone mineral density (BMD) measurement and/or a prior fracture. However, more than 50% of women and 70% of men who sustain fragility fractures do not have BMD in the osteoporosis range (T score < − 2.5). This represents a “prevention paradox”, which is the basis for developing the population-based prevention strategy outlined here.