[Reliability of the modified albrand questionnaire to diagnose osteoporosis].

Background: A considerable amount of Mexican women will be in menopausal status, though it won't be possible to carry out densitometry to all of them. Developing a risk-factor--based instrument to screen those who would need it is advisable.

Objective: To ascertain the sensitivity and specificity of the Albrand questionnaire, which could be used to identify risk factors for osteoporosis.

Material And Method: A cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sampling technique was used to include 906 menopausal women. All women answered a modified and previously validated version of Albrand questionnaire; Cronbach's alpha was 0.83. Eight risk factors for osteoporosis were analyzed; each risk factor had a different weight and the total score per patient was calculated. All underwent lower arm densitometry.

Results: Peripheral densitometry revealed that 166 patients had osteoporosis and 740 did not. The global prevalence of osteoporosis was 18.3%; the cut-off value was set in > or =4 points. The Albrand questionnaire had 55% sensitivity and 79% specificity; the positive predictive value was 39% and the negative predictive value was 90%.

Conclusion: Albrand questionnaire has acceptable sensitivity and specificity and it could be useful for screening menopausal women who would need densitometry tests. Applying the instrument would reduce costs of osteoporosis detection.