Results from the Global Longitudinal Study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW) have suggested that there is a failure to perceive the implications of critical risk factors among women even though they are at increased risk for fractures associated with osteoporosis.

The study from GLOW, which is based at the Center for Outcomes Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was published in the journal Osteoporosis International and evaluated more than 60,000 postmenopausal women in 10 countries.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Improved education of both physicians and postmenopausal women about osteoporosis risk factors is urgently needed, according to the study authors. Osteoporosis causes bones to become fragile and therefore more likely to break. If left untreated, the disease can progress painlessly until a fracture occurs. Several risk factors for fractures have been identified and should be considered by physicians treating women age 55 and over:

* older age

* low weight

* parental hip fracture

* personal history of fracture (clavicle, arm, wrist, spine, rib, hip, pelvis, upper leg, lower leg, ankle) since age 45

* two or more falls in the past year

* current use of cortisone or prednisone (steroids often prescribed for a number of medical conditions)

* rheumatoid arthritis

* cigarette smoking

* consumption of three or more alcoholic beverages daily.

Lead author of the paper, Ethel Siris, MD, GLOW investigator and Director of the Toni Stabile Osteoporosis Center of the Columbia University Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, remarked that most women are unable to make the association between their risk factors and the serious consequences of fractures.