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Assessment of Fracture Risk in A Population of Postmenopausal Italian Women: A Comparison of Two Different Tools

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Abstract

The main objective of this study was to compare in the assessment of risk of fractures in postmenopausal women two algorithms for 10-year fracture risk evaluation, the WHO-endorsed FRAX® and the Italian FRAX-derived version (DeFRA), which considers BMD of different bone sites and allows the inclusion of other data. In a secondary analysis, we compared the performance of the tools in discriminating subjects who sustained previous major fractures from those who did not. The 10-year fracture risk score was evaluated in a sample of 989 climacteric women using FRAX and DeFRA tools. Bone mineral density was also included in the calculation of these algorithms. Comparing how the subjects were assigned to different risk classes by the two tools, we found that DeFRA attributed higher risk categories than FRAX, among women in the subgroups between 50 and 59 and, mostly, 60–69 years of age. ROC curve analysis showed that DeFRA had the same discriminative ability to identify previous major osteoporotic fractures compared to FRAX (AUC = 0.74 for both). If confirmed by prospective studies, our findings would suggest that DeFRA might be ascribed as at least equivalent to FRAX or perhaps slightly most appropriate in the categorization of the fracture risk, particularly in women aged 60–69 years, a period in which bone densitometry analysis is highly recommended.

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Acknowledgments

The Authors want to thank M. Cristina Castaldini, Stefania Ferrazzini, and Valentina Lea Poetto for their meaningful contribution in data collection and processing.

Conflict of interest

Gloria Bonaccorsi, Enrica Fila, Carlo Cervellati, Arianna Romani, Melchiore Giganti, Maurizio Rossini, Pantaleo Greco, and Leo Massari report no conflicts of interests.

Funding

This work was not supported by external funds.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

The present population-based study was conducted in accordance to the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, http://www.wma.net). An informed consent was signed by all the study subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Menopause and Osteoporosis Centre, University of Ferrara, Via Boschetto 29, 44124, Ferrara, Italy

    Gloria Bonaccorsi & Enrica Fila

  2. Department of Biomedical and Specialist Surgical Sciences, Section of Medical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Ferrara, Via Borsari 46, 44121, Ferrara, Italy

    Carlo Cervellati & Arianna Romani

  3. Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine, University of Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Cona, Ferrara, Italy

    Melchiore Giganti

  4. Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, P.le L. Scuro n 2, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Maurizio Rossini

  5. Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Section of Obstetric and Gynaecology, University of Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Cona, Ferrara, Italy

    Pantaleo Greco

  6. Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Section of Orthopedic Clinic, University of Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Cona, Ferrara, Italy

    Leo Massari

Authors
  1. Gloria Bonaccorsi
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  2. Enrica Fila
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  8. Leo Massari
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gloria Bonaccorsi.

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Bonaccorsi, G., Fila, E., Cervellati, C. et al. Assessment of Fracture Risk in A Population of Postmenopausal Italian Women: A Comparison of Two Different Tools. Calcif Tissue Int 97, 50–57 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-015-0009-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-015-0009-2

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