Did you know that a bone fracture can reduce your life expectancy?
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney knew and as a result created the skeletal age calculator which can estimate an individual’s risk of bone fracture and premature death.
The new technology will be made available to Australian doctors and health professionals which is particularly great news for the 900,000 Australians who suffer from osteoporosis.
The model takes into account a person’s age, bone density, history of previous fractures and other health conditions to calculate a personalised estimate of their ‘skeletal age’, which can be significantly higher than their actual age.
As a result, doctors and health professionals can more accurately predict a person’s ‘skeletal age’ and the risks of bone fractures and a plan to improve bone health can be formulated.
The research team is now working on an online calculator model before rolling it out into the field.
