Screen all women aged 65 and older for osteoporosis: task force also calls for routine screening starting at age 60 for 'high-risk' women. (USPSTF Guidelines).

All women aged 65 years and older should be routinely screened for osteoporosis, according to guidelines recently issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

In addition, routine screening beginning at age 60 is advised for "high-risk" women who are either thin--under 154 pounds--or do not use estrogen replacement therapy, said the task force, an independent panel sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Although screening women without risk factors and those under age 60 may detect additional cases of osteoporosis, the number of fractures that might be prevented is too small to make a general recommendation for screening those women, the panel said.

Experts in the field are hailing the recommendations.

"It's great to finally see the endorsement of population screening rather than 'case-finding strategies' by anyone, especially the USPSTF," said Dr. Paul Miller, medical director of the Colorado Center for Bone Research in Lakewood.

And what makes the USPSTF position particularly hard-hitting is that it is strikingly different from its last statement 6 years ago, said Dr. Michael McClung, director of the Oregon Osteoporosis Center in Portland. "This is the same government task force that conduced 6 years ago that there was not enough evidence to recommend routine screening," he said.

The USPSTF guidelines are similar to those from other groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.