[Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of osteoporosis].

Preventive procedures of a disease can be classified into three levels. Primary prevention protects healthy people against the disease, secondary prevention screens people at high risk for the disease or with the disease of an early stage and treats them, and tertiary prevention rehabilitates patients with the disease through medical treatment. Many preventive measures for osteoporosis have been shown to have strong or fair evidence for their validity in each of the three levels. It is necessary to provide people with different risks of osteoporosis valid preventive measures which correspond to their risk profiles. The primary prevention for osteoporosis should be provided all the people as comprehensive measures against other lifestyle-related diseases, the secondary prevention should target people at higher risk of osteoporotic fractures, and the tertiary prevention should be provided the patients and at frail elderly people using medical or long-term care insurance.