CORRELATES OF OSTEOPENIA AND OSTEOPOROSIS IN WOMEN WITH OBESITY

Safiyah, Sara Mahmood, Daniyal Farooque*, Monazzah Fatima, Mohd Salman

ABSTRACT

Aims: To determine the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with obesity, and to assess the correlation of age, duration of menopause, BMI, body fat and lipids with T-scores. Settings and Design: Cross sectional study at a tertiary care hospital in North India. Materials and Methods: A total of 86 women with BMI ≥25 kg/m² underwent dual energy X ray absorptiometry, and the 42 postmenopausal women among them were analysed. Bone status was classified by WHO T-score criteria at each site and overall, using the lower of the hip and lumbar spine T-scores. Results: Overall, 16 women (38.1%) had normal bone status, 14 (33.3%) had osteopenia and 12 (28.6%) had osteoporosis. Osteoporosis was identified in 26.2% at the lumbar spine and 14.3% at the hip. Women with osteoporosis were older than women with normal bone status (59.42 ± 8.94 vs 50.00 ± 7.40 years). BMI was lower in the osteopenia and osteoporosis groups than in the normal group (median 27.95 and 27.80 vs 33.05 kg/m²). The lowest T-score correlated negatively with age (ρ = −0.49, P < 0.001) and duration of menopause (ρ = −0.50, P < 0.001), and positively with BMI (ρ = 0.41, P = 0.008). Body fat percentage and lipids neither differed across groups nor correlated with T-scores. Conclusions: Nearly two in three postmenopausal women with obesity had osteopenia or osteoporosis, and the lumbar spine identified more osteoporosis than the hip. Age, duration of menopause and BMI were related to bone status, whereas body fat and lipids were not. Assessing both sites may be useful in this group.

Keywords: Body mass index, obesity, osteopenia, osteoporosis, post-menopause.