OSTA as a screening tool to predict osteoporosis in Indian postmenopausal women - a nationwide study

This cross-sectional study done on 5356 postmenopausal women showed that OSTA may be used as a reliable screening tool for osteoporosis across different regions of India, a country known for its ethno-linguistic, cultural, and genetic diversity. Background The gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis is DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan, and this is not widely available across India. OSTA (Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool for Asians) score predicts risk of osteoporosis and can be used as reference tool for DXA. At a cutoff of <= +1, OSTA predicted femoral neck osteoporosis with a sensitivity of 88% in a previous study among south Indian postmenopausal women. This study was done to validate the OSTA score in postmenopausal women across India. Methodology A cross-sectional study in 5356 postmenopausal women from four regions of India namely south, east, north, and west. Bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) were assessed by DXA. The performance of OSTA in predicting BMD and TBS was assessed using ROC curve. Results The mean (SD) age was 61.6 (7.6) years. The performance of OSTA in predicting osteoporosis was fair (P < 0.001) with an AUC of 0.727 (95% CI 0.705-0.749) in the south, 0.693 (95% CI 0.664-0.723) in east India, 0.730 (95% CI 0.700-0.759) in the north, and 0.703 (95% CI 0.672-0.735) in the western region. At a cut-off below + 1.0, sensitivity was 76-84% and specificity was 45-53% in diagnosing osteoporosis at any site. In predicting degraded microarchitecture, the AUC was 0.500-0.600. Conclusion OSTA may be reliably used as a screening tool for women at high risk of osteoporosis across India and may circumvent the limited availability of DXA scanners across the country.