Understanding the Burden of Osteoporosis and Use of the World Health Organization FRAX

Educational Objectives As a result of reading this article, physicians should be able to: 1. Identify major patient factors contributing to fractures related to osteoporosis. 2. Define osteoporosis and osteopenia. 3. Use the World Health Organization Fracture Risk Assessment Tool. 4. Improve treatment and postfracture management of osteoporosis. Fracture prevention is a critical component of managing osteoporosis, which is not longer defined by T-score alone. The internationally validated World Health Organization Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) provides the clinician a state-of-the-art tool for predicting patients at greatest risk for fracture. The FRAX tool takes into account country, bone mineral density of the hip (when available), age, sex, and 8 clinical risk factors to calculate the 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture and the 10-year probability of a hip fracture. From this tool, an absolute fracture risk is generated, aiding clinicians in determining which patients with low bone mass and osteoporosis to treat.