OSTEOPENIA AND OSTEOPOROSIS;

Abstract

Objective: Osteopenia and osteoporosis are one of the main health concerns ofPakistani females now days. Our objective was to study the frequency of osteopenia andosteoporosis among females in the Faisalabad and its suburbs. Material and Methods: Studywas initiated after approval of Ethical Review Committee. It was an observational cross sectionalstudy conducted by the Department of Community Medicine, University Medical & DentalCollege Faisalabad in a private sector university of Faisalabad city and a private clinic in People’scolony, Faisalabad. Study included a total of 600 women. Convenient sampling was done. Studywas conducted from 1st January 2013 to 30th September 2013 in six different sessions. Age,marital status, education, socio-economic status (SES), occupation, parity and residence werevariables of interest. Bone Mineral Density (BMD) was tested using calcaneal quantitativeultrasound machine and right heel of participant. Machine converted the BMD values into TScore.According to the recommendations of World Health Organization (WHO) participant wasconsidered normal, osteopenic and osteoporotic. SPSS version 16 for windows was used toanalyze data. Results were considered significant if p - value was < 0.05. Results: Our resultsreflected that 72.9% of study participants were osteopenic while 2.4 % were osteoporotic and24.7% were normal. By place of residence no significant difference was observed, 48% of ruralpopulation and 47% of urban population was osteopenic and insignificant correlation was found(p=0.438). However, 46.77% and 10% of urban participants were normal and osteoporoticrespectively. Education in relation to osteopenia and osteoporosis revealed that 42% of educatedfemales were osteopenic while 31.33% of illiterate females were osteopenic (p > 0.05). 69.88%married females were osteopenic and 43.22% unmarried females were osteopenic (p < 0.001).Conclusions: In our study frequency of osteopenia and osteoporosis was significantly high in allage groups. There is need for large-scale population-based studies using calcaneal quantitativeultrasound or DEXA scan to assess the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in thecommunity. Further health education with special reference to balanced diet should be impartedto target population.