Performance of simple calculated osteoporosis risk estimation in a sample of women with suspected osteoporosis in the turkish population

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the simple calculated osteoporosis risk estimation (SCORE) in a random sample of postmenopausal women. We collected data on 177 consecutive patients aged over 45 years. Bone mineral density (BMD) measurements were taken at the hip and lumbar spine. The test performance cut-off value was evaluated according to scores of 5, 6, 7, 8 and age distribution. When all groups were evaluated, SCORE 6 sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were 86.7, 59.1, 63, 82.5%, respectively. In the age ranged 45–49, we determined SCORE 6 results of Sn 85, Sp 100%. The test was able to identify women not requiring detailed densitometric investigation in this age group to a high level of accuracy. At SCORE 6 receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.6. We determined that the SCORE questionnaire performance in estimating those women with low BMD in the Turkish population was limited. However, since it is a simple, economical and practical pre-test, a SCORE 6 cut-off value can be used together with the physician’s clinical analysis in sending patients with suspected low BMD for dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) measurement.