Cardiaovascular Disease Risk Factors in Thai Natural Menopause with First-Time Diagnosis of Low Bone Mass Density

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of initial cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in naturally postmenopausal Thai women with first-time diagnosis of low bone mass density (BMD), and compare with those reported among general Thai women of the same age range during the same studied time. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study of initial CVD risk factors of 473 naturally postmenopausal Thai women (45-60 years) with the first-time diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis without previous treatment for CVD risk factors, except for hypertension(HT) and diabetes mellitus(DM), was performed. Only subjects with all available initial CVD risk factors were recruited. Data included age, weight, height, waist circumference(WC), and underlying diseases. Extracted initial CVD risk factors were: HT, DM, body mass index(BMI), cholesterol level, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, and family history of CVD. The main outcome was prevalence of initial CVD risk factors with 95%CI. Results were compared with data of previous Thai reports in women of the same age during the same time period. Results: All subjects (86.3% osteopenic, 13.7% osteoporotic) had on average 3.6 years since menopause. Prevalence of women with initial CVD risk factors was 73.8%. The three most common risk factors were high BMI (48.6%), high WC (37.8%) and high cholesterol (22.2%). Only high BMI was more prevalent than previously reported. In contrast, the other factors were lower than previously published data. Conclusion: With the exception of high BMI, initial CVD risk factors in this study were comparable to or lower than those reported in general Thai women of the same age during the same time period.