Investigation of osteoporosis prevalence and osteoporosis-related clinical risk factors among healthy elderly male

Abstract

To investigate the osteoporosis prevalence and osteoporosis-related clinical risk factors among healthy elderly male. A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2014 to October 2014. Healthy elderly male aged 50 and above from Beijing WangZuo Community who had completed the questionnaire we made were enrolled in this study and accepted bone mineral density (BMD) testing by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Subjects were classified as the osteoporosis group (OP group) and the non-osteoporosis group (Non-OP group) according to the WHO criteria, of which osteoporosis was defined arbitrarily when any T-score was -2.5 standard deviations or less at femoral neck, total hip or lumbar spine (L1-4). The clinical risk factors of each subject including age, body weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), previous fragility fracture history, smoking, alcohol abuse, glucocorticoid therapy and other capable clinical risk factors were collected and compared in OP group and Non-OP group. In the 346 cases of elderly healthy men, 18.5% had osteoporosis, 55.5% had osteopenia and 26.0% were normal. Femoral neck's and total hip's BMD level decreased with increasing age. However, the trend was not found at lumbar spine site. There appeared to be a significant difference in BMD standard between lumbar vertebral and total hip when compared with age-matched cohorts (P<0.05). Weight, BMI, previous fragility fracture history and smoking were found significant differences between OP group and Non-OP group (P<0.05). The prevalence of osteoporosis in healthy older men should not be ignored. Low BMI and weight, previous fragility fracture history and smoking history were clinical risk factors of OP in this population.