About the Authors

Aline G. Costa

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, United States of America, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, São Paulo Federal University, São Paulo, Brazil

Allison Wyman

Affiliation Center for Outcomes Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Ethel S. Siris

es27@columbia.edu

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, United States of America

Nelson B. Watts

Affiliation Mercy Health Osteoporosis and Bone Health Services, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Stuart Silverman

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Kenneth G. Saag

Affiliation Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Christian Roux

Affiliation Paris Descartes University, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France

Maurizio Rossini

Affiliation Rheumatology Section, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Italy,

Johannes Pfeilschifter

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine III, Alfried Krupp Krankenhaus, Essen, Germany

Jeri W. Nieves

Affiliation Helen Hayes Hospital and Columbia University, West Haverstraw, New York, United States of America

J. Coen Netelenbos

Affiliation Department of Endocrinology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lyn March

Affiliation University of Sydney Institute of Bone and Joint Research and Department of Rheumatology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Australia

Andrea Z. LaCroix

Affiliation Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Frederick H. Hooven

Affiliation Center for Outcomes Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Susan L. Greenspan

Affiliation University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Stephen H. Gehlbach

Affiliation Center for Outcomes Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Adolfo Díez-Pérez

Affiliations Hospital del Mar-IMIM-Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, RETICEF, ISCIII Madrid; Spain

Cyrus Cooper

Affiliation MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

Juliet E. Compston

Affiliation Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Roland D. Chapurlat

Affiliation Division of Rheumatology, INSERM UMR 1033, Université de Lyon, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital E Herriot, Lyon, France

Steven Boonen

Affiliation Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Frederick A. Anderson Jr

Affiliation Center for Outcomes Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jonathan D. Adachi

Affiliation St Joseph's Healthcare, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Silvano Adami

Affiliation Rheumatology Section, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Italy,

Competing Interests

Aline Costa, Allison Wyman and Jeri Nieves have no disclosures. Ethel Siris has previously consulted for Amgen, Lilly, Novartis, Merck and Pfizer; and has served on Speakers' Bureaus for Amgen and Lilly. Nelson Watts has received honoraria for lectures during the past year from Amgen, Lilly, Novartis and Warner Chilcott; consulting fees during the past year from Abbott, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Endo, Imagepace, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Medpace, Merck, Nitto Denko, Noven, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer/Wyeth and Quark; research support (through his Health System) from Merck and NPS; and cofounded, has stock options in and is a director of OsteoDynamics. Stuart Silverman has received grant support from Wyeth, Lilly, Novartis and Alliance; has served on Speakers' Bureaus for Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble; has received honoraria from Procter & Gamble; and has previously consulted/acted as an Advisory Board member for Lilly, Argen, Wyeth, Merck, Roche and Novartis. Kenneth Saag has consulted for or received other remuneration from Merck, Amgen and Eli Lilly; has received research grants from Merck; and has held non-remunerative positions of influence on the NOF Board of Trustees and as ACR Chair on the Quality of Care Committee. Christian Roux has received honoraria from and consults/acts as an advisory board member for Alliance, Amgen, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Nycomed, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Servier and Wyeth. Maurizio Rossini is on the Speakers' Bureau for Roche. Johannes Pfeilschifter has received grant support from Amgen, Kyphon, Novartis and Roche; has received grant support for equipment from GE Lunar; has served on Speakers' Bureaus for Amgen, sanofi-aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Lilly Deutschland, Orion Pharma, Merck, Merckle, Nycomed and Procter & Gamble; and has acted as an Advisory Board member for Novartis, Roche, Procter & Gamble and Teva. J. Coen Netelenbos has previously consulted for Roche Diagnostics, Daiichi-Sankyo, Proctor & Gamble and Nycomed; has received lecture fees, travel and accommodation from E. Lilly, Amgen, Novartis and Will Farma and has received grant support from The Alliance for Better Bone Health and Amgen. Lyn March has acted as an Advisory Board member for Servier and received speakers' bureau fees and support to travel to scientific meetings from Servier, Merk and Pfizer. Andrea LaCroix has received funding from The Alliance for Better Bone Health (sanofi-aventis and Warner Chilcott) and is an Advisory Board member for Amgen. Susan Greenspan has previously consulted/been an Advisory Board member for Amgen, Lilly and Merck; and has received grant support from The Alliance for Better Bone Health (sanofi-aventis and Proctor & Gamble) and Lilly. Frederick Hooven, Stephen Gehlbach and Frederick Anderson have received funding from Pfizer. Adolfo Díez-Pérez has received consulting fees and lectured for Eli Lilly, Amgen, Procter & Gamble, Servier and Daiichi-Sankyo; has been an expert witness for Merck; consults for/is an Advisory Board member for Novartis, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Procter & Gamble; has received honoraria from Novartis, Lilly, Amgen, Procter & Gamble and Roche; has previously been an expert witness for Merck; and has previously consulted/acted as an Advisory Board member for Novartis, Lilly, Amgen and Procter & Gamble. Cyrus Cooper has previously consulted for/received lecture fees from Amgen, The Alliance for Better Bone Health (sanofi-aventis and Warner Chilcott), Lilly, Merck, Servier, Novartis and Roche-GSK. Juliet Compston has previously consulted for Servier, Shire, Nycomed, Novartis, Amgen, Procter & Gamble, Wyeth, Pfizer, The Alliance for Better Bone Health, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline; has received lecture fees, travel and accommodation from Servier, Procter & Gamble and Lilly; and has received grant support from Servier R&D (2007–2009), Procter & Gamble (2007–2009), Nycomed (2009–2012) and Acuitas (2009–2011). Roland Chapurlat has received funding from the French Ministry of Health, Merck, Servier, Lilly and Procter & Gamble; has received honoraria from Amgen, Servier, Novartis, Lilly, Roche and sanofi-aventis; and has previously consulted/acted as an Advisory Board member for Amgen, Merck, Servier, Nycomed and Novartis. Steven Boonen has received grant support from Amgen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, sanofi-aventis, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline; and has received honoraria from, served on Speakers' Bureaus for and previously consulted/acted as an Advisory Board member for Amgen, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, sanofi-aventis and Servier. Jonathan Adachi has received consulting fees or other remuneration from Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Warner Chilcott; has received research grants from Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, and Novartis; has held a non-remunerative position of influence on the IOF Board of Directors, Osteoporosis Canada; and has been on speakers bureaus for Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis and Warner Chilcott. Silvano Adami has received honoraria for boards and speeches from Merck, Eli-Lilly, Amgen. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ESS NBW SS KGS CR JP JWN JCN LM AZL FHH SLG SHG ADP CC JEC RDC SB FAA JDA SA. Performed the experiments: AGC AW SS KGS CR MR JP JWN JCN LM AZL SLG ADP CC RDC SB JDZ SA. Analyzed the data: AW. Wrote the paper: AGC ESS.