Lifestyle changes after osteoporotic fractures in elderly women

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: health promotion and disease prevention activities directed to osteoporosis might help to reduce the rate of osteoporotic fractures among elderly people. METHODS: in order to check whether osteoporotic women modify their habits after the fracture, 518 postmenopausal white Brazilian elderly women were recruited from the outpatient clinic of the Rheumatology Division (122 of them with fracture) and were followed for one year. Questionnaire of evaluation was based on the European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study (EVOS) and inquiries about topics related to falls, bone mass and fracture. Lateral thoracic and lumbar radiographs were taken according to a standard protocol in order to verify vertebral fracture. Bone mineral density was measured using a bone densitometer (Lunar DPX, Madison, WI). Women's behavior was analyzed before and after the fracture. RESULTS: before the fracture, 34% of them had poor health perception, 40.2% walked at least half an hour per day, 14.7% used canes, 56.6% complained of dizziness, 59.6% scattered rugs, 78.9% used public transportation, 21.1% used car, and 36.8% wore leather instead of rubber sole. After the fracture, 66.4% of those women had worse health perception; 69.7% became more sedentary, 27.9% used more canes, 63.4% complained of more dizziness, 38.3% removed rugs, 68.1% changed from public to private car transportation, and 55.7% modified their shoes from leather to rubber sole. Risk factors related to bone mass did not change before and after the fractures. CONCLUSIONS: these findings suggested that women modify only lifestyle habits related to falls but not those related to bone mass after osteoporotic fracture. Further research is needed in order to check which intervention strategies may lead to better results in preventing osteoporotic fractures.