Objective: This study was designed to assess the frequency of osteoporosis and 10-years fracture probability in postmenopausal women by using the WHO fracture risk assessment tool (FRAXTM).

Materials and Methods: Our study group consisted of 254 postmenopausal women who attended to the family outpatient clinic. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). 10-years fracture probability was assessed using the WHO fracture risk assessment tool (FRAXTM) with or without the measurement of BMD, separately.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 56.82±7.79 (min=36, max=78) years, 81.9% of subjects (n=208) were housewives, 57.5% (n=146) were obese and 19.3% (n= 46) were smokers. The prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia was 14.9% and 39.2%, respectively. When we investigated T-score of L1-L4, we found that 38.2% (n=97) were between -1 and -2.5 (osteopenia), 21.3% (n=54) were below -2.5 (osteoporosis) and 40.6% (n=103) were -1 and over (normal). Femur DXA measurements showed that 17.38% (n=44) of the participants were osteoporotic and 45.7% (n=116) were osteopenic. In trochanter, 6.3% (n=16) was osteoporotic and 33.5% (n=85) was osteopenic. For a major osteoporotic fracture, the probability ranged from 0.5% to 12.0% and from 0.1% to 7.1% with or without the measurement of BMD, respectively. For hip fracture, the probability ranged from 0.0% to 10.0% and from 0.0% to 5.6% with or without the measurement of BMD, respectively.

Conclusion: Early detection of osteoporosis and prediction of fracture risk among postmenopausal women is very important for clinical practice both in terms of preventing the undesirable health effects and decreasing substantial morbidity, mortality, and medical costs caused by osteoporosis.