The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is recommending that all women 65 years of age and older be screened for osteoporosis to help prevent bone fractures later in life.
Osteoporosis is a skeletal disorder that often develops over many years and causes a person's bones to become weak and brittle due to a loss in bone density. It's also referred to as the "silent disease" because symptoms often don't appear until the person affected fractures a bone.
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The condition primarily affects older adults, particularly postmenopausal women because of a decrease in estrogen levels, which helps protect bone density. Though less common, men can also be affected.
"Although bone density is an important risk factor for fragility fractures, advancing age is a stronger determinant," the USPSTF said in a statement. "Older adults have much higher fracture rates than younger adults with the same [bone mineral density] because of concurrent increasing risk from declining bone quality and an increasing risk of falling."
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, some 10 million people in the U.S. over the age of 50 have osteoporosis — a large majority of which are women.
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Experts say factors that increase the risk of developing osteoporosis include age, gender, family history, alcohol consumption, smoking, and low levels of vitamin D and calcium.
It's recommended older adults participate in regular weight-bearing exercises, consume a diet rich in vitamin D and calcium, and avoid smoking or excessive alcohol consumption to lower their risk of developing osteoporosis.
