German DVO risk score identified more patients requiring treatment compared to FRAX.

Purpose: Fracture risk determination is essential when recommending treatment in osteoporosis management. We calculated the risk probabilities of major osteoporotic and hip fractures using the DVO score established in German-speaking countries and the FRAX tool.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed data from 555 female patients (mean age 64.2 ± 10.3 years) evaluated for osteoporosis. As suggested by DVO guidelines before 2023, we set the therapy threshold of >30% for vertebral and hip fractures. Major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) and hip fracture risk (HF) were calculated based on corresponding FRAX scores. We applied the internationally most common therapy threshold of ≥20% for MOF and ≥3% for HF and determined the 'DVO-equivalent risk levels' for FRAX-based assessment.

Results: The DVO score identified 52.8% of women as having a 10-year risk of hip and vertebral fractures >30%. FRAX score for HF ≥ 3% without bone mineral density (BMD) identified the highest number of patients (56%). The proportion of female patients identified for treatment only by DVO score (14.6%) were more likely to present spinal fractures (38.3 vs 18.6%), whereas the 10.6% of patients only identified by FRAX including BMD presented more peripheral fractures (40.7 vs 29.6%). The thresholds for this 'DVO-equivalent risk level' for 'FRAX with BMD' would be ≥10% for MOF and ≥2.6% for HF.

Conclusion: Given the differences in the DVO and FRAX scores, we highly recommend considering both scores when assessing individual women for treatment.