Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Oct 31;13(1):118.
doi: 10.1007/s11657-018-0510-0.

A brief history of FRAX

Affiliations
Review

A brief history of FRAX

John A Kanis et al. Arch Osteoporos. .

Abstract

This paper reviews the research programme that went into the development of FRAX® and its impact in the 10 years since its release in 2008.

Introduction: Osteoporosis is defined on the measurement of bone mineral density though the clinical consequence is fracture. The sensitivity of bone mineral density measurements for fracture prediction is low, leading to the development of FRAX to better calculate the likelihood of fracture and target anti-osteoporosis treatments.

Methods: The method used in this paper is literature review.

Results: FRAX, developed over an 8-year period, was launched in 2008. Since the launch of FRAX, models have been made available for 64 countries and in 31 languages covering more than 80% of the world population.

Conclusion: FRAX provides an advance in fracture risk assessment and a reference technology platform for future improvements in performance characteristics.

Keywords: FRAX; Fracture; Fracture probability; Osteoporosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interest

All authors have contributed to the development of FRAX but have no financial interest.

References

    1. Albright F, Bloomberg E, Smith P. Post-menopausal osteoporosis. Trans Assoc Am Physicians. 1940;55:298–305.
    1. Albright F, Smith P, Richardson A. Postmenopausal osteoporosis: Its clinical features. JAMA. 1941;116:2465–2474.
    1. Shapira D, Shapira C. Osteoporosis: The evolution of a scientific term. Osteoporosis International. 1992;2:164–167. - PubMed
    1. Wylie CD. Setting a standard for a “silent” disease: defining osteoporosis in the 1980s and 1990s. Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2010;41:376–385. - PubMed
    1. Anonymous. Consensus development conference: prophylaxis and treatment of osteoporosis. BMJ. 1987;295:914–5. - PMC - PubMed