Comparison of Methods to Improve Fracture Risk Assessment in Chinese Diabetic Postmenopausal Women: A Case-Control Study

PurposeThis study compared the performance of three proposed Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) alternatives to the current standard Chinese FRAX in predicting bone fracture risk in type 2 diabetic (T2DM) postmenopausal women, and to explore the optimal strategy to better predicted fracture risk in postmenopausal women with diabetes in China.MethodsWe recruited 434 patients from community-medical centers, 217 with T2DM and 217 without T2DM (non-T2DM). All participants completed self-reported questionnaires detailing their characteristics and risk factors. Bone mineral density (BMD) and spinal radiographs were evaluated. The China FRAX model calculated all scores. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for predicting 10-year risk for major (MOF) and hip (OHF) osteoporotic fractures in T2DM patients. ResultsT2DM patients had higher BMD but lower average FRAX values than non-T2DM patients. The unadjusted FRAX ROC-AUC was 0.774, significantly smaller than that for 0.5-unit femoral neck T-score-adjusted FRAX (0.800; p = 0.004). Rheumatoid arthritis (RA; AUC = 0.810, p = 0.033) and T-score (AUC = 0.816, p = 0.002) adjustments significantly improved fracture prediction in T2DM patients. Conclusions: Femoral neck T-score adjustment might be the preferred method for predicting MOF and OHF in Chinese diabetic postmenopausal women, while RA adjustment only effectively predicted HF risk.ConclusionsFemoral neck T-score adjustment might be the preferred method for predicting MOF and OHF in Chinese diabetic postmenopausal women, while RA adjustment only effectively predicted HF risk.