January 19th, 2012

The US Preventative Services Task force says that women 65 and older should be screened for osteoporosis, but doesn’t give any guidelines regarding testing. New research suggests that “women with a good bone density score may be able to wait 15 years before their next screening because they are unlikely to develop osteoporosis before then,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

If the T-score – the measure of bone density – is low, they suggest re-screening the next year. If it’s moderate, suggesting osteopenia, they suggest waiting 5 years to screen again.