Minorities May Be at Higher Risk for Delays in Osteoporosis Treatment
African Americans Less Likely to Be Screened, Treated
October 16, 2006 – (Philadelphia, PA) - A study presented recently at the 28th Annual meeting of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research in Philadelphia
has shown that a general lack of awareness of osteoporosis screening criteria among physicians may have an adverse affect
on when women over 65 get treated. While both Caucasian and African American women had similar risk factors for osteoporosis
in this study, the Caucasian women were twice as likely as African American women to get proper screening for the disease.
This retrospective study also found that Caucasian women were prescribed calcium twice as often as African Americans, and
were more commonly given vitamin D.
Catherine Anastasopoulou, MD, FACE, of the Department of Endocrinology at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia,
PA, presented the study, entitled Screening for Osteoporosis in Different Ethnic Groups: Possible Disparities in Care. Her
co-authors included Ana Mendoza, MD, Dalma Hegedus, MD, and Arthur Chernoff, MD, FACE, of both the Departments of Endocrinology
and Geriatrics at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, all women over 65 years of age need to be screened for osteoporosis even
in the absence of risk factors. Dr. Anastasopoulou and her colleagues conducted a retrospective chart review study of women
65 and older who were treated in the outpatient geriatric and general medicine clinics of an urban tertiary care medical center.
Data from 557 women over 65 years old was collected.
Preliminary results indicate the lack of awareness among physicians of the guidelines for osteoporosis screening, especially
in minority populations. The team was surprised to see that even non-invasive measurements such as height were made less often
in minority groups. The screening of white women was also far from optimal. The white women had more than double the fractures
compared to black women and across all groups Women who were screened and were found to have abnormal results were not treated
adequately.
“More efforts should be made to increase doctors’ awareness of osteoporosis in general and to encourage them to request screening
for osteoporosis of all women, even in the absence of any obvious risk factors” added Dr. Anastasopoulou.
For more information or an interview with Dr. Anastasopoulou please contact Stephen Gary, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, 215-254-2699 or garys@einstein.edu
Publish date: October 16, 2006
