January 18, 2011 – In an update to its 2002 recommendation, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now recommends screening for osteoporosis in women ages 65 years and older and in younger women whose fracture risk is equal to or greater than that of a 65-year-old white woman who has no additional risk factors. The USPSTF also concluded that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for osteoporosis in men.
This is the first final recommendation statement to be published since the implementation of the USPSTF public comment process for draft recommendation statements.
The recommendation appears in the January 18 online issue of Annals of Internal Medicine and is also available on the USPSTF Web site at http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Topic/recommendation-summary/v2-osteoporosis-screening-2011.
