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(HealthDay News) — Older men are much less likely than women to receive osteoporosis screening and treatment after suffering a wrist fracture, according to a study published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
Tamara Rozental, MD, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 95 men and 344 women aged older than 50 years who were treated for a wrist fracture between 2007 and 2012.
Men were three times less likely than women to undergo bone mass density testing for osteoporosis after a wrist fracture, the researchers found. In addition, men were also seven times less likely than women to begin treatment for osteoporosis after a wrist fracture.
Within 6 months of the wrist fracture, 55% of women and 21% of men began treatment with calcium and vitamin D supplements. Twenty-two percent of women — but only 3% of men — started taking bisphosphonates.
“Treating men for bone fractures, but not the underlying cause, places them at a greater risk for future bone breaks and related complications,” Rozental said in a news release from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Men older than 50 who suffer wrist fractures should undergo testing to identify those who are at high risk for more fractures and who would benefit from treatment, Rozental suggested.
