09 Characteristics of Community Fallers and the Diagnosis of Osteoporosis in the Falls Clinic of a Public Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Introduction Osteoporosis is a chronic asymptomatic condition. The US National Bone Health Alliance recommends that osteoporosis may be diagnosed by bone mineral density (BMD) testing, the occurrence of low-trauma fractures or through the use of fracture risk algorithms. However, osteoporosis has low screening rates despite having clear treatment benefits. Methodology This study aimed to describe the characteristics of patients in the falls clinic with and without osteoporosis and the ways by which diagnosis of osteoporosis was made. A retrospective, descriptive study was carried out on all patients who attended the falls clinic from January 2015 till March 2019, with data collected from its falls database. Results A total of 117 patients were included in this study. All patients had a history of fall, either single or recurrent. 43 patients had osteoporosis, of which 72.1% were female (p value <0.05). In this study, age and ethnicity were not found to be risk factors for osteoporosis. Polypharmacy, having three or more comorbidities along with alcohol and smoking habits were also not significantly associated with osteoporosis. This study also showed no differences in terms of history of recurrent falls and level of mobility between the two groups of patients. Of the 43 patients with osteoporosis, six patients (14.0%) were diagnosed by BMD testing prior to their attendance at the falls clinic. 24 patients (55.8%) had a presumptive diagnosis of osteoporosis made based on prior fragility fracture, of which majority were vertebral fractures (45.8%); and the remaining 13 patients (32.0%) were diagnosed to have osteoporosis by BMD testing after their visit to the falls clinic. Conclusion Most patients who attended the falls clinic have had a prior fragility fracture, which could have been prevented by treatment. Screening for osteoporosis should therefore be carried out more robustly in the community to prevent injurious falls.