Bone Abstracts

Introduction and aims: Vitamin D deficiency is a prevalent disorder in developing countries. Clinical manifestations of the deficiency include musculoskeletal disorders, such as nonspecific muscle pain, poor muscle strength and low bone mineral density (BMD). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and low BMD in healthy Saudi women.

Methods: The subjects of this cross-sectional study comprised 449 healthy Saudi women who were randomly recruited from the city of Jeddah through Primary Health Care Centers. Fasting blood samples were collected for assessment of 25(OH)D and bone turnover markers. Lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD were measured using DXA. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum 25(OH)D) <50 nmol/l.

Results and discussion: The mean age was 43.9±15.9 years and the mean serum 25(OH)D was 28.8±21.8 nmol/l. A total of 80.5% of women studied were vitamin D deficient and 55% exhibited severe vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D <25 nmol/l). The mean BMD for lumbar spine and femoral neck was 1.062±0.161 and 0.889±0.137 respectively. Osteopenia was evident in more than one quarter of the women at both sites and 6.5% were osteoporotic. Circulating C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) level correlated significantly with lumbar spine (r=−0.09, P=0.04) while a trend was found with femoral neck BMD (r=−0.80, P=0.09).

Conclusion: These data suggest that low vitamin D status is associated with low bone mass in this healthy population. Further investigations are currently underway to explore concomitant effects of other lifestyle factors on bone health in these women.