Free health tool
Use Global Health’s checklist of age, sex and risk factors to prepare a conversation about bone health with a clinician.
Your risk factors
A break from a fall from standing height or less, wrist, hip, spine or arm.
Such as an overactive thyroid, malabsorption, or long-term liver or kidney disease.
No specific risk factors flagged
Nothing you entered matches the published risk factors guidelines use for osteoporosis case-finding. That is reassuring, but it is not a guarantee. Mention any new fracture or fall to a doctor regardless.
This checklist does not calculate fracture probability or diagnose osteoporosis. A clinician can use a validated risk tool with or without a DXA scan, depending on the tool and clinical situation.
01
Osteoporosis itself has no symptoms: the first sign is often a fracture from a fall that would not normally break a bone. Guidelines therefore work backwards from risk factors, deciding who is worth assessing before a fracture happens rather than after.
The ten factors below inform this Global Health checklist. Two major flags and eight contributing flags are counted without weights. Their grouping and output tiers are implementation choices, not a validated NICE score.
Fragility fracture after 50
Long-term oral steroids (3+ months)
A parent broke a hip
Current smoker
3+ alcohol units a day
Rheumatoid arthritis
A secondary cause of bone loss
2+ falls in the past year
Menopause before 45
Low body weight (BMI under 18.5)
02
The rules below describe this implementation. They do not reproduce the full NICE risk-assessment pathway or a validated prediction model.
03
A risk-factor checklist is a sorting tool, not a measurement. It tells you whether it is worth asking about a scan. It cannot tell you what that scan would show.
04
Developed by Global Health using the methods and assumptions explained below. Established formulas and scales are credited to their original authors. This is a custom checklist, not FRAX or a validated fracture-probability formula. Women ≥65, men ≥75, a prior fragility fracture or oral steroids for at least 3 months trigger ‘assess now’; any of eight other factors triggers ‘discuss next’; otherwise ‘no flags’. These tiers are implementation choices informed by older CG146, not a validated prediction model. The eight contributing flags are parental hip fracture, smoking, ≥3 alcohol units/day, rheumatoid arthritis, a secondary cause of bone loss, ≥2 falls/year, early menopause (female input only) and BMI <18.5 after rounding to one decimal. The fracture answer is used as entered: although its label says after age 50, the code has no age check for that flag.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Robert Gabriel Brînduș· Colegiul Medicilor din România 152462Last reviewed November 3, 2026
NICE NG259 (2026) replaces CG146. Its age, menopause, alcohol and steroid pathways differ from this custom checklist. NG259 supports clinical context, not validation of these tiers.
A flagged risk factor is a reason to ask about a bone density scan, not a diagnosis. These are the consultations that can take it further.
160 leiContraception, hormonal health, menopause, or women's health concern? Our CMR-registered doctors offer confidential assessments in English by secure video call. Same-day appointments available.
Talk any result through with a registered doctor by video, and get the checks a calculator cannot give you.
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Open calculatorQuestions
No. This is Global Health’s custom checklist informed by published risk factors. It does not implement FRAX, produce a fracture probability or reproduce the full NICE pathway.
A dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan, a low-dose X-ray that measures bone density, usually at the hip and spine. It is the test an assessment actually relies on; nothing on this page replaces it.
No. A flag is a topic to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis or a guarantee that a guideline recommends a scan. Osteoporosis can also occur without these flags.
This checklist does not cover every relevant clinical factor. Discuss concerns with a clinician even if no factors are flagged.
A doctor, from a DXA bone density scan, usually a T-score of -2.5 or below at the hip or spine. A risk-factor questionnaire like this one can only suggest who should have that scan; it cannot diagnose anything itself.
No. The scoring runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you select is sent to our servers or saved.
Yes. DXA scanning is available on referral within the public health insurance system, and privately without one in many clinics. This Global Health checklist prepares a risk-factor discussion; a clinician decides which assessment or scan is appropriate.
Start with a doctor's appointment. They will go through your risk factors and, where the guideline threshold is met, refer you for a covered DXA scan or point you to a private one.
Book a video consultation with a registered doctor, go through your risk factors, and find out whether a referral for a DXA scan makes sense.