Osteoporosis Within a Cohort of Postmenopausal Pakistani Women Using Dual X-Ray Bone Densitometry

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To explore the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis within a cohort of Pakistani postmenopausal women with respect to the lumbar spine and hip.
 METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Shifa International Hospital Islamabad, Pakistan from September 2019 to Feb 2020. Study comprised of 237 postmenopausal females who visited the outpatient department of the hospital. The T-scores of Bone Mineral density (BMD) data was collected and arranged in three groups: normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis. Data was analyzed to explore the distribution of the data and correlation analyses using R software version 3.6.3.
 RESULTS: Out of 237 females, majority were ranging in age from 61-70 years (n=110; 46.4%), followed by 51-60 years age group (n=60; 25.3%). Osteopenia was noted in 98 (41.4%) cases in lumber spine and hip area. Osteoporosis was found in 79 (33.3%) and 59 (24.9%) cases in lumber spine and hip region respectively. Mean T score was -1.775±-2.000 and median T score was -1.469 for lumber spine and hip. T-scores distribution of lumbar spine and hip indicated the highest proportion having a sore of -2 SD (n=60; 25.3% each), followed by -3 SD in 52 (21.9%) cases. Bone mass density was negatively correlated with age (p≤0.01). However, no significant difference was found among the BMD values of lumbar spine and hip region.
 CONCLUSION: Decreased bone density was a common occurrence affecting postmenopausal females and there is increase in degenerative bone loss with increasing age. Hip and lumbar spine region are equally affected by degenerative bone loss.