From Aging to Pathology: The Case of Osteoporosis

In the 1940s, osteoporosis was a narrow diagnosis that referred to postmenopausal women with nontraumatic vertebral fractures. During and after the 1980s, it was invested with new meanings. Rather than being an aspect of the normal aging process, bone loss became pathological. New scanning technologies and the development of numerical scales hastened the process of change. The lowering of the numerical threshold for the diagnosis resulted in a recommendation that virtually all elderly persons be screened and undergo treatment. The transformation of this diagnosis into a major health problem provides an illustrative case study of the interrelationships between perceptions of aging, the celebration of youth, gender, the role of the medical care system and the pharmaceutical industry, the commercialization of health care, as well as a variety of social, scientific, and technological currents.