DXA scanning in women over 50 years with distal forearm fracture shows osteoporosis is infrequent until age 65 years

Summary Aims: Women with distal forearm fracture (DFF) may have low bone mineral density (BMD) and merit Dual Energy Xray (DXA) scanning. However patient age at fracture and the database for ‘healthy’ subjects may influence how many have osteoporosis and require DXA scans. Osteoporosis prevalence in DFF patients by age was investigated using local or nHanes III databases for BMD. Methods: A total of 186 women over 50 years consecutively referred with DFF over 1 year were audited without exclusion criteria. BMD of L2–4 and femoral neck (Hologic QDR4500A) was measured and T‐ and Z‐scores calculated from a local database or nHanes III. Results: Of 90 patients aged 50–64 years, 21.1% had femoral neck T‐score