A novel primary osteoporosis screening tool (POST) for adults aged 50 years and over

Purpose This study aimed to develop and validate a simple primary osteoporosis screening tool (POST) based on adults aged 50 years and older. Methods This study included participants aged ≥50 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Osteoporosis was defined according to bone mineral density values. The POST was developed based on methods from previous studies. Moreover, we plotted the receiver operating characteristic curves to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) and determine the optimal cut-off value according to the weighted Youden index. In addition, we compared the performances in identifying individuals with osteoporosis between the POST and the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool (OST). Finally, we also assessed the performance of the POST in the Chinese population. Results Finally, a total of 6665 individuals were included in this study. The AUC values of the POST for identifying individuals with osteoporosis in the development cohort and the validation cohort were 0.81 (95% CI: 0.79–0.83) and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.77–0.84), respectively. Moreover, a POST-score ≥7 was determined as the threshold to identify individuals with osteoporosis, in which the sensitivity was greater than 90%. In addition, the POST showed significantly higher sensitivity than the OST. Finally, the POST showed an AUC of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.65–0.85) among 94 Chinese subjects aged ≥50 years old. Conclusions POST is a convenient and effective tool for osteoporosis screening among adults aged 50 years and over, which might provide new methodological support for future osteoporosis screening.