Post‐fracture Risk Assessment: Target the Centrally Sited Fractures First! A Substudy of NoFRACT

ABSTRACT The location of osteoporotic fragility fractures adds crucial information to post‐fracture risk estimation. Triaging patients according to fracture site for secondary fracture prevention can therefore be of interest to prioritize patients considering the high imminent fracture risk. The objectives of this cross‐sectional study were therefore to explore potential differences between central (vertebral, hip, proximal humerus, pelvis) and peripheral (forearm, ankle, other) fractures. This substudy of the Norwegian Capture the Fracture Initiative (NoFRACT) included 495 women and 119 men ≥50 years with fragility fractures. They had bone mineral density (BMD) of the femoral neck, total hip, and lumbar spine assessed using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA), trabecular bone score (TBS) calculated, concomitantly vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) with semiquantitative grading of vertebral fractures (SQ1–SQ3), and a questionnaire concerning risk factors for fractures was answered. Patients with central fractures exhibited lower BMD of the femoral neck (765 versus 827 mg/cm2), total hip (800 versus 876 mg/cm2), and lumbar spine (1024 versus 1062 mg/cm2); lower mean TBS (1.24 versus 1.28); and a higher proportion of SQ1‐SQ3 fractures (52.0% versus 27.7%), SQ2–SQ3 fractures (36.8% versus 13.4%), and SQ3 fractures (21.5% versus 2.2%) than patients with peripheral fractures (all p