[Daily practice using the guidelines for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis prevention and use of the new management guideline for osteoporosis].

Now that the goal of osteoporosis management has been clearly defined as prevention of osteoporosis-associated fractures, prevention strategy for these fractures becomes compellingly important. While the new management guideline for osteoporosis places an overriding emphasis on the prevention of osteoporosis, it goes on to stress the importance of pharmacological therapy even in patients at high risk of developing fractures, in whom pharmacological therapy would not be indicated in the earlier guideline, thus recommending that pharmacological therapy be extended to a larger proportion of patients who may benefit from such treatment. In this therapeutic strategy, not only pharmacological therapy in middle-aged and elderly individuals in perimenopause will be of vital importance, as in the earlier guideline, but also non-pharmacological intervention through modification of everyday lifestyle habits will become increasingly important in adolescents and young female adults in their developmental years. It is thus hoped that adherence to the new guideline will lead to a decrease in the frequency of reported fractures, including femoral neck fractures, in Japan.