A PROGRAM aimed at reducing falls and fractures in the community has uncovered hidden cases of osteoporosis in St George.
It involved testing the bone mineral density of about 200 patients who presented to St George Hospital emergency department with low trauma fractures in the past 12 months.
Lead investigator and head of the St George Division of General Practice, Klaus Stelter, said almost all of the people scanned were shown to have some degree of sub-optimal bone mineral density (BMD).
There were also many who in fact, had, osteoporosis — a condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue.
Nida Khoury, 56, of Kingsgrove, was among those diagnosed with osteoporosis after attending the emergency department with a minor foot fracture.
"I was shocked when I got the news," Mr Khoury said.
Falls are the biggest cause of injury in Australia.
"I thought, 'you have a freak accident, you fracture your foot, big deal, in six weeks, you'll be fine'."
Dr Stelter said having a BMD scan after sustaining a small fracture was the best way to pick up abnormalities.
"Osteoporosis, other than when you find it with fractures, is a hidden disease," he said.
"The truth is, it's still mainly a disease of old age.
"But it was being found that if you follow up on small fractures, that's bang for the buck.
"Our whole aim is not to give old people some sort of new thing to make them stronger.
"What we're trying to do is stop them attending the emergency department with a hip fracture.
"Once there's a hip fracture . . . 25 per cent of people will die in the first year."
Muscle fractures can lead to premature death when combined with age and other existing co-morbidities.
"We don't want to give the wrong impression that every young male should go get a BMD scan," Dr Stelter said.
"But it's a myth that males don't get it."
Dr Stelter helps run the Ferndale Bone Density Clinic at Mortdale, where more than 1600 St George residents have been tested.
"The message is if you have a fracture, even if minor or picked up on a chest X-ray, see your GP for a BMD scan."
The project was funded by the South Eastern Local Health District and concluded last month.