Short summary

Data from Danish DXA scanners in the collaborating centres of this application (accounting for 82% of clinical DXA exams in the country and can be assumed to cover a similar percentage of hospital-based osteoporosis management) will be used to establish a national fragility fracture cohort that will be enriched with bone turnover markers and other biochemical parameters, as well as risk factors (comorbid conditions and prior fractures) to model, embed and extend RCTs.

Rationale

Clinical trials often have very strict in- and exclusion criteria and a limited duration making generalizing the results to the entire disease population challenging. Information from nationwide health registers is therefore crucial in order to understand how osteoporosis; treatment, adverse effects, and complications affect the wider population. Combining clinical trial evidence and data from registers could potentially improve fracture risk prediction and thereby identification of patients in need of medical treatment. Establishing register-based DXA cohorts also allows for new possibilities in the development of novel ML and AI prediction models, which may be used to predict how individual patient's bone mineral density develops over time.

Description of the cohort

Main cohort: All individuals aged 50 per 01/01/2010 Embedded Cohort: Retrospective cohort of all DXA scanned individuals aged 50+ (01/01/201) between 2010 and 2023.

Data and biological material

The main cohort contains national registry data, including all filled prescriptions, hospital contacts (i.e. procedures, surgeries, admissions and diagnoses), socioeconomic and migration data. The embedded cohort contains all of the above, as well as height, weight, age, gender and hip/spine bone mineral density measurements obtained at the DXA scan dates between 2010-2023 The embedded cohort is also enriched with a range of osteoporosis relevant biomarkers extracted from Danish biochemical departments.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Department of Endocrinology Aarhus University Hospital

• Bente Langdahl

Department of Endocrinology Aalborg University Hospital

• Peter Vestergaard

Department of Clinical Biochemistry Rigshospitalet Glostrup

• Niklas R Jørgensen

Department of Imaging, Rigshospitalet

• Bryan Haddock

Department of Endocrinology OUH

• Lars Folkestad