MEDICINE Most people with osteoporosis don't even know it, study says

SCRIPPS HOWARD
Although the number of Americans diagnosed with osteoporosis has jumped sevenfold in the past decade, a new study estimates that fewer than half of those with the bone-thinning condition actually know it.
"If someone's doctor hasn't diagnosed osteoporosis, there's no way they could be on optimal treatment for their bone condition," said Dr. Randall Stafford, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center and lead author of the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the bones become more fragile and prone to breaking. The risk increases with age and is higher for women, who tend to have thinner bones to start with. It is diagnosed by a test of bone-mineral density.
The study found that 3.5 million patients were diagnosed last year for osteoporosis treatment, up from just 500,000 in 1994, based on a national database on the drug-prescribing patterns of 3,500 office-based physicians.
Before 1994, the main drugs used to treat it were estrogens and calcium supplements.
But beginning in 1995, several new drugs that use various mechanisms to help regulate calcium metabolism or slow bone loss have been introduced, each with aggressive marketing campaigns.