People at risk of osteoporosis can catch a break with a new Alberta Health Services' prevention program.
Officially launched in the Edmonton zone Monday, the initiative by AHS' Bone and Joint Health Strategic Clinical Network screens people at risk of osteoporosis and provides information to them as well as their family doctors.
Staff at Health Link Alberta will comb through data provided by emergency departments and cast clinics to identify people between the ages of 50 and 80 years of age who may have suffered a fragility fracture.
A fragility fracture typically results from low trauma, such as a fall from a height of three stairs or standing height, explained Lara Osterreicher, Health Link's director of operations.
When people over the age of 50 have a bone break from something that wouldn't typically cause a fracture – such as tripping over a leash while walking their dog – it's most likely due to fragile bones caused by osteoporosis, she said.
Once a patient has been screened for eligibility into the program – they are between 50 and 80 years of age and have had a fracture (femur, hips, vertebral, wrists, arms, feet, ankles) – they will be contacted by Health Link to determine how the fracture occurred.
Once in the program, participants will be mailed information about osteoporosis and its risk factors.
The project will hopefully close the information gap between emergency rooms and family doctors, noted Osterreicher.
"There are times when communication in an acute care facility or the visit to the emergency department doesn't reach the family physician in a timely way," she said.
A letter will also be sent to the family physician to inform them the patient is at high risk of osteoporosis. It will also give them up to date clinical practice guidelines to stop the disease from progressing.
"Those continue to change and sometimes family physicians aren't up on the appropriate screening and treatment for osteoporosis. It gives them a map of what they should be doing with their patient when they present (those symptoms)," said Osterreicher.
Health Link staff will then follow-up with program participants at three, six and 12 months to ensure they have contacted their doctor.
Catch a Break aims to slash the number of serious hip fractures in the province by 50 per cent by interrupting the fracture cascade – the risk of a subsequent fracture gets higher and higher with every fracture.
Evidence-based
Catch a Break is based on a pilot project that was undertaken between 2005 and 2006 in the Edmonton zone.
The project involved nearly 750 participants, the majority of whom were at high risk for developing osteoporosis.
The pilot did not move into operational funding at the time, said Osterreicher, "but we've been trying to resurrect it since then, since the outcomes were so good."
As stated in the project report, 79.3 per cent of the participants in the high-risk group followed up with their physician within three months and an additional 6.5 per cent followed up after the three-month reminder call.
By the end of the project about 73 per cent who had visited their family physician had received a bone mineral density test and 72.5 per cent of those who had a density test and a diagnosis of osteoporosis were put on an osteoporosis medication.
"Those were significant outcomes compared to other studies done at the time," said Osterreicher.
Up to 80 per cent of people over the age of 50 who suffer a fragility fracture are not assessed or treated for osteoporosis, stated information provided by the Alberta Bone and Joint Institute.
The project also yielded a rare finding – men followed up as frequently as women. It is an interesting result since men tend not to go to the doctor unless they have to, said Osterreicher.
Coordinators hope the program will help determine how successful the province has been detecting and treating osteoporosis and reducing the number of hip fractures.
They plan to roll out Catch a Break to the Edmonton zone first, the Calgary zone by the fall and the rest of the province by 2015.
The silent thief
Osteoporosis is often called the "silent thief" because many people do not know their bodies are constantly losing bone cells, which in turn makes their bones fragile.
To prevent osteoporosis (as advised by AHS):
• Exercise, especially weight training
• Eat healthy
• Take a vitamin D supplement: Health Canada recommends adults under 70 need 600 IU per day while people 70 and over need 800 IU per day. • Don't smoke
• Don't drink more than two drinks of alcohol a day (more than two and your body starts to lose bone cells)
