Osteopenia is a condition where bone mineral density is lower than normal. It is considered by many doctors to be a precursor to osteoporosis. However, not every person diagnosed with osteopenia will develop osteoporosis. More specifically, osteopenia is defined as a bone mineral density T score between -1.0 and -2.5.
Osteopenia was defined in June 1992 by the World Health Organization. A group of experts decided that condition would mean a bone ...
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Osteopenia is a condition where bone mineral density is lower than normal. It is considered by many doctors to be a precursor to osteoporosis. However, not every person diagnosed with osteopenia will develop osteoporosis. More specifically, osteopenia is defined as a bone mineral density T score between -1.0 and -2.5.
Osteopenia was defined in June 1992 by the World Health Organization. A group of experts decided that condition would mean a bone density that was one standard deviation below that of an average 30-year-old white woman. The group also defined osteoporosis as bone density 2.5 standard deviations or more below that 30-year-old; previously it had been used only in cases where elderly patients had fractured or broken a bone. An osteoporosis epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic who participated in setting the criteria in 1992 said "It was just meant to indicate the emergence of a problem," and noted that "It didn't have any particular diagnostic or therapeutic significance. It...
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