FRAX®. If your bone density test shows that you have low bone density or osteopenia, the fracture risk assessment tool called FRAX® can help your healthcare provider decide if medicine is recommended for you. This tool uses information about your bone density and your other risk factors for breaking a bone to estimate your fracture risk for the next ten years.

If you have low bone density, your DXA report may include your FRAX® score along with your bone density. If it doesn’t, your healthcare provider can find out your FRAX® score using a web-based version. The FRAX® tool can be used to guide decisions about treatment in people who meet the following three conditions:

1. Postmenopausal women or men age 50 and older
2. People with low bone density (osteopenia)
3. People who have not taken an osteoporosis medicine

Your FRAX® score estimates your chance of breaking a hip as well as your combined chance of breaking a hip or other major bones over the next ten years. Other major bones include the spine, hip, forearm and shoulder. FRAX® makes it easier to decide whether you might benefit from taking an osteoporosis medicine to reduce the risk for broken bones. NOF recommends that people with a 3 percent or greater chance of breaking a hip in the next 10 years or a 20 percent or greater chance of breaking any major bone in the next 10 years be treated with an osteoporosis medicine. If you have low bone density, talk to your healthcare provider about your FRAX® score and what your results mean.

If you have low bone density or osteoporosis and are trying to make a decision about treatment, you should compare the risk of having a broken bone if you do not take medication with the expected benefit of treatment (reduction of fracture risk) and the potential risks of treatment (side effects). When the benefit of treatment outweighs the risk, then you should consider taking the medication. Other factors to think about are your past experience with osteoporosis medication, other medical problems, the cost of treatment and your personal level of concern about breaking bones or having side effects from treatment.

Image used with permission of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University of Sheffield.  FRAX®  is registered to Professor JA Kanis, University of Sheffield.