Epidemiological multicenter study on osteoporosis: the EDMUSTO study

Abstract

To the Editor Osteoporosis (OP) has been recognized as a worldwide major public health problem. Several risk factors have been identiWed to play a role in OP and the relevant literature comprises some descriptive studies within several countries [1–9]; however to our best knowledge, epidemiological diVerences among speciWc countries have not been fully reported hitherto. EDMUSTO was primarily conducted to provide an insight into understanding the epidemiological comparisons among three countries—namely Turkey, Iran and Poland—with regard to OP. The results with speciWc remark on eye and hair colors are presented in this paper. Six hundred and thirty-four postmenopausal women (461 from Turkey, 101 from Iran and 72 from Poland) with a diagnosis of OP were enrolled in the EDMUSTO study. During patient registration and data recording, a common style was utilized by all of the physicians in each country. Then, the forms were gathered and analyzed by the Turkish team. Demographical parameters included age, body weight and height, eye and hair color, education level, age and type of menopause, duration of OP, history of fracture, family history of OP and fractures, physical activity, high alcohol intake, heavy smoking, heavy caVeine intake and daily calcium intake. BMD evaluations were carried out by using DEXA of lumbar and femoral regions. Current treatments were also recorded. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were performed for the comparison of three countries. Analysis of variance, Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were used to evaluate post hoc diVerences. Student’s t test and Mann–Whitney U test were performed to test the diVerences between two groups. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for all calculations and statistical signiWcance was set at P < 0.05. When compared among the countries; the mean age values of Turkey (62.73 § 9.62) and Iran (63.85 § 9.80) were indiVerent, but that of Poland (68.10 § 7.84) was higher (P = 0.00). We have found signiWcant diVerences between the countries as far as BMI, age of menopause, eye/hair color, educational level, fracture history, family history of fracture, heavy smoking, daily Ca intake and physical activity, treatment alternatives and BMD values were concerned (all P values < 0.05) (Fig. 1, 2, 3). Furthermore, when all the results were recruited as a single data, we have Y. Gokce-Kutsal · L. Ozcakar (&) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey e-mail: lozcakar@yahoo.com