Prevalence of osteoporosis and its association with serum vitamin D level in older people in Amirkola, North of Iran

BACKGROUND: Ageing of population worldwide will be responsible for a major increase of the incidence of osteoporosis in elderly. For the individual, osteoporotic fractures result in great disability as well as loss of quality of life and also represent an enormous burden for healthcare systems. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis and its association with serum vitamin D level in elderly people in Amirkola, North of Iran. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 193 subjects aged 60 years old and over were assessed in Amirkola. Using a standard questionnaire, individual characteristics and densitometry (with DXA) results were collected and the data were analyzed with SPSS, chi square tests and linear regression. RESULTS: The overall prevalence rate of osteoporosis was 32.1% in at least one measurement sites (28.5% in lumbar and 14.5% in femoral region), while 49.7% of elderly people suffering from decreased bone mass (osteopenia). Osteoporosis prevalence in women was 55.7% and this value in elderly men was 12.4%. Bone mineral density has negative association with age in femoral region (p<0.01, r-0.3), but no statistical relationships were seen between bone mineral density and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D level in this study. CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed higher prevalence of osteoporosis in elderly people especially in women compared to other studies in Iran, and also showed high prevalence rate of vitamin D deficiency. No relationships were found between serum vitamin D and bone density in this study.