Osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, dietary calcium and other risk factors

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to examine the main risk factors associated with the development of primary osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with osteopenia. Seventy-six patients between 46 and 85 years old were selected; 56.5% presented an osteopenia diagnosis and 43.4% presented an osteoporosis diagnosis, according to the World Health Organization criterion. The risk factors were investigated through clinical register and food-frequency questionnaire. The odds ratio was calculated by the software Statistica. Eighty-six percent of the women affected by osteopenia and 84.8% of those suffering from osteoporosis showed low intake of calcium through dairy products. The “t” test for independent samples was applied and no significant difference (p = 0.99) between the two groups was found. In the group with osteopenia, the risk factors took the following hierarchical form: absence of hormonal replacement therapy (2.000), no sun exposure (1.516), alcoholic drink consumption in youth (1.346), current inadequate intake of calcium (1.163), absence of physical activities in the present (1.145), family history of osteoporosis (1.101), absence of physical activities in youth (1.006), smoking habit (0.851) and consumption of alcoholic drink in the present (0.827). It was concluded that the absence of hormonal replacement therapy was the risk factor which indicated the major probability of the osteoporosis occurrence among the women with osteopenia.