Bone Abstracts

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD), decreased bone strength and increased incidence of fragility fractures. It is one of the major public health conditions, affecting millions of people worldwide. Osteopenia is a potential precursor of osteoporosis and identifying this condition is a pivotal step to institute preventive strategies at younger age, leading to delay in onset or prevention of the disease, thus related morbidity and mortality in older life can be reduced.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of osteopenia in different age groups and to identify the associated factors.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among adults working in the governmental sector in Dubai, UAE and assessed using quantitative ultrasound device (QUS) to find the T-score for each participant. Results: The prevalence of osteopenia rose progressively with increasing age. It was found that, 15.3% of participants aged 20 to < 30 years and 22.5% of participants aged 30 to < 40 and 28.2% of participants aged 40 to <50 years had osteopenia. Moreover, osteopenia was more common in female participants, compared to male participants (26.5 and 17.6% respectively). Family history of osteoporosis, history of traumatic fractures and history of vitamin D deficiency were significantly associated with osteopenia (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The prevalence of osteopenia is high. Health-related policymakers and programs planners in the country need to address this problem and apply early intervention methods to prevent or delay a chronic condition such as osteoporosis.