FRAX-based intervention and assessment thresholds in seven Latin American countries

SummaryAge-specific intervention and assessment thresholds were developed for seven Latin American countries. The inter-vention threshold ranged from 1.2% (Ecuador) to 27.5% (Argentina) at the age of 50 and 90 years, respectively. In the LatinAmerican countries, FRAX offers a substantial advance for the detection of subjects at high fracture risk.IntroductionIntervention thresholds are proposed using the Fracture Risk Assessment (FRAX) tool. We recommended their useto calculate the ten-year probability of fragility fracture (FF) in both, men and women with or without the inclusion of bonemineral density (BMD). The purpose of this study is to compute FRAX-based intervention and BMD assessment thresholds forseven Latin American countries in men and women≥40 years.MethodsThe intervention threshold (IT) was set at a 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) equivalent to awoman with a prior FF and a body mass index (BMI) equal to 25.0 kg/m2without BMD or other clinical risk factors. The lowerassessment threshold was set at a 10-year probability of a MOF in women with BMI equal to 25.0 kg/m2, no previous fracture andno clinical risk factors. The upper assessment threshold was set at 1.2 times the IT.ResultsFor the seven LA countries, the age-specific IT varied from 1.5 to 27.5% in Argentina, 3.8 to 25.2% in Brazil, 1.6 up to20.0% in Chile, 0.6 to 10.2% in Colombia, 0.9 up to 13.6% in Ecuador, 2.6 to 20.0% in Mexico, and 0.7 up to 22.0% inVenezuela at the age of 40 and 90 years, respectively.ConclusionsIn the LA countries, FRAX-based IT offers a substantial advance for the detection of men and women at highfracture risk, particularly in the elderly. The heterogeneity of IT between the LA countries indicates that country-specific FRAXmodels are appropriate rather than a global LA model.