Physician networks included regional health-system-owned or managed practices, health maintenance organizations, independent practice associations, and other primary care practice networks. Networks established for the purpose of general medical research were used only if they

were not established exclusively for osteoporosis research and did not consist of physicians whose primary focus was academic. Primary care physicians were defined as physicians who spent the majority of their time providing primary health care to patients. Depending on the country in which the study site was Rabusertib supplier located, this included internists, Y-27632 research buy family practitioners, and general practitioners

who provide primary care. If the physician network or study area included more eligible physicians than were required to recruit a sufficient number of patients, a random sample of those physicians within the network or study was invited. Each physician completed a standardized form that collected data on their demographics and practice characteristics (Table 2). Table 2 Physician data Country, state/province and postal code Demographics: sex and age Primary and secondary specialties Percentage of time devoted to Selleck ML323 stiripentol primary and secondary specialties Number of patients in the physician’s panel Practice type: solo, single specialty group, multispecialty group, size of group Availability of on-site bone mineral density testing Patient selection Each

physician practice provided a list of the names and addresses of women aged 55 years and older who had consulted their physician in the past 24 months. These lists comprised the sampling frame. Sampling was stratified by age to ensure that two thirds of the women surveyed were 65 years of age and older. In each practice, we recruited from all eligible women 65 and over and a random sample of half that number under age 65 years. Sample size estimates were generated to detect a 30% difference in 5-year fracture incidence between treated and untreated patients with a power of 80%. On this basis, a sample of approximately 3,000 patients was sought at each site. Patients were excluded if they were unable to complete the study survey due to cognitive impairment, language barriers, or institutionalization or were too ill.