Evaluation of some factors related to osteoporosis in the elderly

ABSTRACT

Background: Osteoporosis in the elderly is now a pressing issue in the world as well as in Vietnam. Objective: To survey the proportion of osteoporosis in patients visited to the hospital, To search some factors related to the osteoporosis proportion in the elderly. Subjects and method: From April to June 2007, 344 patients aged 50 years or more visited to National Institute of Gerontology were surveyed, examined and measured the bone mineral density. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Results: Osteoporosis proportions according to age were 28.2% at the age of 50 to 59 years; 42.85% at the age of 60 to 69 years; 66.6% at the age of 70 to 79 years and up to 100% at the age of over 80. The osteoporosis proportion in women increased substantially after menopause in comparison with men (45.5% compared to 33.1%). 50.9% of people working inactively and rarely done exercises had osteoporosis while this rate in people who had active work is 38.5%. After 10 years of menopause, there were 24.7% of people had osteoporosis and that number after 10 - 20 years was 52.7%, after more than 20 years was 61.9%. 50% of men with smoking had osteoporosis in comparison with 35.7% in non-smoking group. Conclusions: The proportion of osteoporosis increased with age. Acting regularly helped reduce osteoporosis. The longer the period of menopause was, the higher the rate of osteoporosis was. Using corticoid and smoking cigarettes increased the rate of osteoporosis.