Cascade Screening

A parental history of fracture, particularly hip fracture, significantly increases fracture risk for older adult children, making family history a critical factor in osteoporosis risk assessment.

Encourage siblings and adult children of patients with fragility fractures to assess their own fracture risk with tools like Know Your Bones™.

Cascade screening provides a powerful opportunity to identify and manage osteoporosis within families where a member has already experienced a fragility fracture. When an older adult presents with a hip fracture or another fragility fracture, it is an ideal moment to engage their family members, particularly siblings and adult children who are 20 to 30 years younger.

Encourage these family members to utilise tools like the Know Your Bones™ online fracture risk self-assessment to evaluate their own fracture risk. This proactive approach is especially valuable for adult children who may be in their fifties – a prime time for assessing and managing bone health to prevent future fractures.

With Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) identifying the majority of the estimated 22,300 fragility fractures that occur annually in New Zealand, there is an opportunity for one family member’s fracture today to help prevent another family member from sustaining a fracture in the future. This approach costs essentially nothing, as the Know Your Bones® tool is free, offering a cost-effective, widespread case-finding opportunity for the health system.

The second edition of the Clinical Standards for FLS in New Zealand emphasises the importance of providing information to family members of patients with fragility fractures. By promoting cascade screening, healthcare providers can help identify individuals at increased risk and ensure they receive timely assessments and interventions to protect their bone health.